THE 
TROOPER   POLICE 

OF 

AUSTRALIA 


A..L.HAYDON 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 
OF  AUSTRALIA 

A  RECORD  OF  MOUNTED  POLICE  WORK  IN 

THE     COMMONWEALTH     FROM     THE 

EARLIEST  DAYS  OF  SETTLEMENT 

TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME 


BY 

A.  L.  HAYDON 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  RIDERS  OF  THE  PLAINS,"  ETC 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  PHOTOGRAPHS,  MAPS  AND  DIAGRAMS 


CHICAGO 
A.    C.    McCLURG    &    CO. 

LONDON : ANDREW  MELROSE 


BUTLER  &  TANNER, 

XHB  SKLWOOD  PRINTING  WORKS, 

FROMK,  AND  LONDON. 


TO 

MY   WIFE 


PREFACE 


IN  offering  this  book  to  the  consideration  of  the  public, 
I  venture  to  claim  that  its  matter  is  its  own  justifica- 
tion. While  there  are  many  volumes  devoted  to  various 
periods  of  Australian  history,  and  in  part  touching  upon 
the  trooper  police,  there  has  been  no  attempt  to  give  a 
comprehensive  account  of  police  administrative  work 
during  the  growth  of  the  Commonwealth.  I  have  long  felt 
that  such  a  record  was  worthy  of  being  written,  as  it  deals 
with  a  very  notable  side  of  Colonial  development,  and  to 
achieve  this  result  has  been  my  purpose  in  the  present 
book.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  conscious  that  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  presented  may  require  some  deprecation  from 
the  author.  The  record  is  not  one  of  a  corporate  regiment, 
such  as  the  Royal  North-West  Mounted  Police  of  Canada 
it  is  concerned  with  the  police  services  of  six  separate  States, 
and  consequently  it  has  been  impossible  to  avoid  a  certain 
amount  of  overlapping.  Furthermore,  some  difficulty  has 
been  experienced  in  obtaining  material  relating  to  the  early 
years  of  one  or  two  forces.  A  great  deal  of  valuable  his- 
torical matter  was  destroyed  in  the  past,  and  this  can  never 
be  replaced.  It  is  only  from  contemporary  sources  that 
one  is  able  at  all  to  fill  in  the  picture. 

With  regard  to  the  bushranging  era,  which  has  a  litera- 
ture of  its  own,  I  have  made  it  my  aim  to  dispel  some  of 
the  popular  misconceptions  attached  thereto.  Certain 

—  vii  — 


PREFACE 

books  on  the  subject  have  an  unfortunate  tendency  to  invest 
Australia's  highwaymen  with  a  false  romantic  glamour. 
In  real  fact  the  mounted  police  are  the  heroes  of  the  story. 
They  are  justly  entitled  to  the  major  share  of  whatever 
romance  and  picturesqueness  the  period  may  possess.  But 
the  reputation  of  the  trooper  police  does  not  rest  solely  on 
the  criminal  side  of  their  duties,  important  though  it  be. 
It  is  as  pioneers,  as  the  advance  guard  of  civilization  in  the 
wilderness,  that  they  deserve  our  admiration.  And  this, 
be  it  remembered,  is  a  work  that  they  are  still  performing, 
and  will  continue  to  perform  so  long  as  the  expansion  of 
Australia's  settled  area  proceeds. 

It  remains  now  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to 
various  Government  officials  who  have  assisted  me  in  the  pre- 
paration of  this  volume.  During  my  stay  in  Australia  I 
was  afforded  every  facility  for  acquiring  the  information 
desired  ;  I  was  allowed  full  opportunity  to  study  the 
mounted  policeman  in  the  barrack-room,  in  the  city,  and  in 
the  solitudes  of  the  bush.  I  have  particularly  to  thank 
ex-Inspec tor-General  T.  Garvin,  I.S.O.,  Inspector-General 
E.  C.  Day,  Commissioner  T.  O'Callaghan,  Commissioner 
W.  G.  Cahill,  Commissioner  Fred  A.  Hare,  Commissioner 
W.  H.  Raymond,  ex-Superintendent  Martin  Brennan, 
Superintendent  Milne,  Superintendent  W.  C.  Brophy, 
Inspector  J.  S.  Clarke,  Inspector  Ryan,  Sub-Inspector 
Allcock,  Sub-Inspector  Orr  and  Detective-Sergeant  Walsh. 

Among  others  whose  help  has  been  generously  extended 
to  me,  in  regard  to  both  material  and  photographs,  I  must 
mention  Mr.  J.  B.  Castiean,  of  Melbourne,  Mr.  E.  Price 
Conigrave,  F.R.G.S.,  and  Mr.  S.  W.  Copley,  of  Perth,  Mr. 
E.  B.  Kennedy  and  Mr.  H.  E.  Garraway. 

A.  L.  HAYDON. 
LONDON,  July,  1911. 

—  viii  — 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    I 

SOLDIEKS    AND    CONVICTS. — I 

1788-1821 

Captain  Cook's  voyage — Sir  Joseph  Banks — The  convict  ques- 
tion— Mr.  Matra's  proposal — The  American  loyalists — 
Lord  Sydney's  "  Plan  "— "  The  First  Fleet  "—Captain 
Phillip  at  Botany  Bay — Removal  to  Sydney — Troubles 
and  dissensions — A  "  night  watch  "  of  convicts — Major 
Grose  governor — The  New  South  Wales  Corps — Captain 
King — The  "  Armed  Association  " — Captain  Bligh's 
stormy  rule — Convicts  assigned  as  servants — Governor 
Macquarie — The  "  Emancipists  " — Opposition  to  the  new 
scheme — Exploration  in  the  colony.  ....  1 

CHAPTER    II 

SOLDIERS   AND    CONVICTS. II 

1821-1835 

Commissioner  Bigge — A  new  order — Governor  Brisbane — A 
mounted  police  force — Governor  Darling — Bushranging 
— Distribution  of  troops — A  ghost  story — Black  tracking 
— Van  Dienien's  Land — Early  troubles  with  convicts — Ex- 
ploration in  New  South  Wales— Oxley — Allan  Cunning- 
ham— Captain  Sturt  discovers  the  Darling — Sir  Thomas 
Mitchell — Hamilton  Hume  at  Geelong — A  settlement  at 
Port  Phillip — John  Batman — Treaty  with  the  natives — 
Melbourne  founded — Swan  River  settlement  in  West 
Australia — Perth  and  Fremantle — Wakefield's  scheme — 
South  Australia  colonised  ......  17 

CHAPTER    III 

THE    FIRST   POLICE 

Formation  and  equipment — Donohue  the  bushranger — End  of  a 
notorious  gang — Police  Magistrates   appointed  in  Sydney 
—  ix  — 


CONTENTS 

— Police  and  gaol  charges — The  Act  of  1838 — Increase  of 
the  force — A  smart  capture — The  penalty  of  carelessness — 
Transportation  to  New  South  Wales  abolished — Patrols  on 
the  main  roads — Uniforms  and  arms — Captain  Zouch — 
"  Scotchey  " — Captain  Battye  and  the  Western  Patrol — 
"  Sticking  up  "  a  mail  coach — Capture  of  Day  and  Wil- 
son— Locating  the  "  plant  " — Trouble  on  the  goldfields — 
The  affair  at  Lambing  Flat — Police  charge  the  mob — 
The  lesson  of  the  riot.  .  .  .  .  .  .33 


CHAPTER    IV 

EARLY   BUSHRANGERS 

1812-1846 

Their  origin — The  "  bush  " — Van  Diemen's  Land  types — 
Jeffries  and  Dunne — Michael  Howe — Repeated  escapes — A 
price  on  his  head — Capture  and  death — Matthew  Brady — 
The  fate  of  a  traitor — Attack  on  Sorell  Gaol — Surrender  to 
John  Batman — Misplaced  sympathy — "  Mosquito,"  bush- 
ranger— Martin  Cash — Daring  escape  from  Port  Arthur — 
Threat  to  Sir  John  Franklin — A  successful  trap — In  New 
South  Wales — Outbreak  at  Bathurst — Mounted  Police  and 
soldiers  in  the  field — The  Bushrangers  Act — Unwarranted 
arrests — "  Farm-constables  " — Jackey  Jackey — A  Norfolk 
Island  rising  ........  50 

CHAPTER    V 

THE    RUSH    FOR    GOLD. — I 
1851 

A  new  era — First  discoveries — Count  Strzlecki's  reports — Clarke 
and  Murchison — The  Daisy  Hill  nugget — Edward  Ham- 
mond Hargraves — At  the  Californian  diggings — Prospect- 
ing in  the  Blue  Mountains — Summerhill  Creek — The ' '  rush" 
begins — Regulations  and  precautions — The  Mounted 
Police — The  exodus  from  Port  Phillip — A  Gold  Discovery 
Committee — Victorian  discoveries — James  Esmond — 
Ballarat  goldfields — Mount  Alexander — Bendigo — Unde- 
sirable elements — The  Influx  of  Criminals  Prevention  Act 
— Duties  of  the  police — Mr.  William  Mitchell  appointed 
Commissioner — Dodging  the  "  Joeys  " — A  typical  scene 
— Ex-Superintendent  Brennan — The  bushrangers  out- 
witted— Another  story  of  Gardiner  .  .  .  .72 
—  X  — 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER    VI 


THE    BUSH   FOB   GOLD. H 

1852-1855 

The  Nelson  gold-ship  robbery — Mounted  Police  in  pursuit — 
Attacks  on  the  Government — Capture  of  the  pirates — 
Transportation  to  Van  Diemen's  Land  abolished — Turbu- 
lence on  the  goldfields — Mail-coach  robberies — The  licence 
fee  agitation — Proposed  increase  of  tax — More  misunder- 
standings— A  police  blunder — Riot  at  Forest  Creek — 
Bendigo  the  centre  of  disaffection — Resignation  of  Mr. 
Latrobe — Sir  Charles  Hotham,  Governor — "  Digger-hunt- 
ing "  and  other  grievances — The  Eureka  Hotel  murder — 
Ballarat  in  ferment — Obduracy  of  the  authorities — The  call 
to  arms — Peter  Lalor — The  Eureka  Stockade — Concessions 
by  the  Government — Constitutional  changes  .  .  89 

CHAPTER    VII 

THE    POLICE    AS    EXPLORERS 

Edward  Eyre,  Police  Magistrate — Inspector  Robert 
O'Hara  Burke — The  Victorian  Exploration  Expedition — 
W.  J.  Wills — The  start  from  Melbourne — Division 
of  the  party — At  Cooper's  Creek — The  dash  for  the 
Gulf — Wright  at  Menindie — Burke  and  Wills  reach  the 
coast — The  return  journey — Death  of  Gray — The  de- 
serted depot — Wright  and  Brah6 — A  series  of  blunders — 
Burke,  Wills  and  King  in  the  bush — Among  the  blacks — 
Nardoo — Burke  and  Wills  succumb — Howitt  finds  King 
— Other  expeditions — Frederick  Walker,  Inspector  of 
Police — From  Rockhampton  to  the  Gulf — Colonel  Eger- 
ton-Warburton — In  Central  Australia — Sub-Inspector 
Robert  Johnstone  .......  108 

CHAPTER    VIII 

BUSHRANGING   DAYS. 1 

A  new  era  of  lawlessness — Native-born  bushrangers — Causes 
of  the  outbreak — False  hero-worship — Captain  Thunder- 
bolt's generosity — Francis  Gardiner — Taking  to  "  the 
road" — Capture  by  Sergeant  Middleton — Trooper  Hosie 
shot — Gardiner's  rescue — John  Piesley,  bushranger — 
"  I've  come  for  '  Troubadour  '  '  — A  gold  escort  en  route — 
—  xi  — 


CONTENTS 

Mr.  Horsington  and  Mr.  Hewitt  "  bailed  up  " — The  great 
gold  escort  robbery — At  the  Eugowra  Rocks — Inspector 
Sir  Frederick  Pottinger — First  successes — An  encounter 
with  Gardiner — More  arrests — Fordyce,  Bow  and  Manns — 
— A  death  sentence — What  became  of  the  treasure  ?  .127 

CHAPTER    IX 

BUSHRANGING   DAYS. II 

"  Gardiner's  Flying  Squadron  " — Inspector  Patrick  Brennan — 
— Catching  a  tartar — Bushranging  tactics — "  Bush  tele- 
graphs " — Gardiner  disappears — Detective  McGlone — 
Capture  of  Gardiner — Trial  and  sentence — Ben  Hall — 
Sticking  up  of  Canowindra — Relaxations — Mock  bush- 
rangers and  a  sequel — Police  caught  napping — Trooper 
Sutton's  pluck — Trooper  Burns — Four  to  one — A  bush- 
ranger shot — Medals  awarded — Raid  on  Bathurst — Police 
blunders — The  system  at  fault — Government  action — 
Police  reforms  instituted  .  .  .  .  .  .  146 

CHAPTER    X 

BTJSHBANGING   DAYS. HI 

Death  of  Lowry — The  Dunn's  Plains  affair — Burke  shot — Sur- 
render of  Vane — O'Meally  at  Goimbla  station — Sergeant 
Parry's  death — The  Felons'  Apprehension  Act — Shooting 
of  Ben  Hall — Gilbert  and  Dunn — Dan  Morgan  on  the 
Southern  Road — Sergeant  McGinnerty — Another  police 
tragedy — Morgan  at  Peechalba  station — A  Chinese  bush- 
ranger— The  brothers  Clarke — Murder  of  the  special  con- 
stables— Hunted  down  at  last — Sir  Watkin  Wynne,  black 
tracker — Captain  Thunderbolt — Trooper  Walker — A  hand 
to  hand  fight — Captain  Melville  in  Victoria — The  "  Moon- 
light "  gang — The  Wantabadgery  "  sticking  up  "  .  .  163 

CHAPTER    XI 

BUSHBANGING   DAYS. IV 

The  Kelly  Gang — Constable  Fitzpatrick  attacked — The  tragedy 
at  Stringy  Bark  Creek — Troopers  Kennedy,  Scanlan  and 
Lonergan  shot — Escape  of  Mclntyre — The  police  hunt 
begins — Hart  and  Byrne — Proclamation  of  outlawry — At 
Euroa — Robbery  of  the  bank — The  raid  on  Jerilderie — 
"  £8,000  Reward  " — Police  officers  in  the  field — A  chance 
—  xii  — 


CONTENTS 

missed — Sub-Inspector  O'Connor — The  black  trackers — 
Hoaxing  the  police — Aaron  Sherritt — Superintendent  Hare 
— A  trooper's  pluck — Murder  of  Sherritt — The  Kellys  at 
Glenrowan — Superintendent  Sadleir — Death  of  Byrne — 
Ned  Kelly  captured — Dan  Kelly  and  Hart — A  Royal 
Commission.  ...  .  184 


CHAPTER    XII 

POLICE   WORK   IN   NEW   SOUTH   WALES 

The  Act  of  1862 — Initial  difficulties — Changes  in  uniform  and 
equipment — Captain  M'Lerie,  Inspector-General — Bush- 
ranging  suppressed — Mr.  Edmund  Fosbery — The 
"Angel "  and  Thurston  case — Superintendent  Day — An  ex- 
citing encounter — The  Darling  River  mystery — Ex-Supt. 
Brennan — "  Waterloo  Tom  " — Aboriginal  murderers — A 
long  chase — Mr.  Thomas  Garvin — Mr.  Day,  Inspector- 
General — Mounted  police  of  to-day — Necessary  qualifi- 
cations— An  "  out-back  "  story — Extraneous  duties — 
Equipment  and  pay  .......  205 

CHAPTER     XIII 

WITH   THE    VICTORIAN   POLICE 

The  Port  Phillip  settlement — Superintendent  Latrobe — Sepa- 
ration demanded — The  colony  of  Victoria — Policing 
arrangements—High  Constables — Captain  Lonsdale — 
Mounted  police— Captain  Mair — A  native  corps — Mr. 
W.  H.  F.  Mitchell,  Chief  Commissioner — Captain  Charles 
Macmahon — Highway  robberies — The  tables  turned — A 
Melville  story — Uniforms — Captain  F.  C.  Standish,  Chief 
Commissioner — Power,  the  bushranger — An  exciting  cap- 
ture— Superintendents  Hare  and  Nicholson — Quelling  a 
mutiny — Mr.  H.  M.  Chomley  appointed — Mr.  T.  O'Callag- 
han,  Chief  Commissioner — Police  figures — At  the  depot — 
Pay .227 

CHAPTER    XIV 

IN    SOUTH   AUSTRALIA 

First  settlement,   1836 — Adelaide  founded — Governor  Hind- 
marsh — Colonel     Gawler— Early     troubles — Sir     George 
Grey — Police     Act    of     1839 — Inspector    Inman — Major 
O'Halloran,   first   Commissioner — The   police    in   1840 — 
—  xiii  — 


CONTENTS 

Uniform — Undesirable  immigrants — Jack  Foley — "  The 
black-faced  robbers  " — Cattle-duffers — A  trooper's  hallu- 
cination— After  aboriginal  murderers — Commissioner 
B.  T.  Finniss — Mr.  G.  F.  Dashwood — Mr.  Alexander 
Tolmer — Inspector  Alford — Major  Egerton-Warburton 
— Later  Commissioners — Consolidating  Police  Act — 
Expansion  of  the  colony — Growth  of  the  force — Crime 
— Northern  Territory — Tom  Egan's  fate — Police  of  to- 
day— Commissioner  W.  H.  Raymond — Distribution — 
Scrub  and  desert — Varied  duties — Camels — Training  and 
equipment  .  '.  .  .  .  .  .  .  247 

CHAPTER    XV 

THE    NORTHERN   TERRITORY 

Early  history — Exploration — McDouall  Stuart — Annexation — 
Port  Darwin  founded — Mounted  police — Criminal  elements 
— Trooper  Donegan — Bogus  Customs  officers — Borro- 
loola — Shanty-keepers — Burnt  out — The  Territory  to-day 
— Native  question — A  back-blocks  tragedy — Troopers 
Holland  and  Dempsey — Sub- Inspector  Waters — Inspector 
Foelsche — The  northern  black — A  startling  experience — 
Out  on  patrol — The  brighter  side — The  new  province  .  267 

CHAPTER    XVI 

THE    ABORIGINES 

Origin — Physical  characteristics — Mental  qualities — Spears — 
Sword  v.  shield — Native  huts — Art — Corrobborees — 
Superstitions — "  You  bin  settled  this  time  " — Singing  a 
man  dead — A  misunderstanding — ^Instances  of  fidelity — 
A  dark  page  of  history — Eloquent  figures^"  All  gone  ! 
dead  !  " — A  point  of  view — Tasmanian  aborigines — "  The 
Black  Line  " — Myall  Creek  massacre — A  salutary  lesson — 
Queensland  barbarities — The  aboriginal  to-day — Increase 
of  half -castes — State  problems.  .....  285 

CHAPTER    XVII 

WESTERN   AUSTRALIA 

Days  of  settlement — Convicts  introduced — A  military  guard — 
Police  constables  appointed — Superintendent  Conroy — 
The  "  Enrolled  Force  " — The  Police  Act  of  1861 — Superin- 
tendent Hogan — Captain  Smith,  Commissioner — Lieut  .- 
Col.  Phillips — Captain  Fred  A.  Hare — Distribution  of  the 
—  xiv  — 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER   XVII— contd. 

WESTERN    AUSTRALIA 

force — The  north-west — Native  troubles — "  Soaks  "  and 
"  Gnamma  holes  " — A  tragedy  of  thirst — Trooper 
Richardson's  murder — "  Pigeon  "  at  large — In  the  Barrier 
Range — Superintendent  Lawrence — The  Jasper  murder — 
"Major" — Police  rewards — Arms  and  uniform — Con- 
ditions of  appointment — Pay — The  trooper  to-day  .  309 

CHAPTER    XVIII 

GOLDFIELDS   AND    PEARLING   STATIONS 

The  Southern  Cross  discovery — "  Bay  ley's  Reward  " — The 
rush  to  Coolgardie — On  the  road — Inspector  McKenna — 
Scarcity  of  water — "  To  Three  Camel  Drinks,  £12  " — A 
record  price — Kalgoorlie — Other  goldfields — A  bogus 
"  rush" — The  alluvial  riots — An  Afghan  murder — "  Bailed 
up  "  in  daylight — Coolgardie's  gold  escort  robbed — On 
the  Kimberley  goldfields — A  brutal  murder — Sub-Inspec- 
tor Troy — The  pearling  industry — Broome — "  Cock- 
eyed bobs  " — Illicit  pearl-buying — The  Ethel  case — A 
Malay  pirate — At  Yampi  Sound — Mounted  Constable 
Fletcher — A  notable  achievement.  ....  330 

CHAPTER    XIX 

AMONG   THE    CATTLE-DUFFERS 

Notorious  examples — Methods  of  work — Brand  "  faking  " — 
The  Kellys — "  Plucking  a  brand  " — Police  patrols — Old 

Mrs.  B A  lost  Hereford — Where  was  the  hide  ? — 

Jack  Burrell — "  Tom-Tit  " — Working  a  stampede — A 
trick  cow — An  opal  robbery — Bowling  out  a  thief — 
Mounted  Constable  Freeman — An  arduous  trip — Benjamin 
Bridges,  horse-thief — Wonderful  tracking  .  .  .  350 

CHAPTER    XX 

THE    QUEENSLAND   POLICE 

The  Moreton  Bay  settlement — Convict  town — Expansion — 
Convictism  again — The  anti-transportation  movement — 
Dr.  Lang — Free  immigration — Black  troubles — Native 
Mounted  Police  formed — Frederick  Walker — Disband- 
ment  and  re-organisation — Brutal  methods — Uniform  and 
distribution — Early  days — Mr.  E.  B.  Kennedy — Amour 
propre — Mr.  G.  Murray — Police  force  established — Gold 
discoveries — Mount  Morgan  mine — A  gold  escort  tragedy 
— Cattle-duffing  and  a  murder — Mr.  D.  T.  Seymour,  Com- 
—  XV  — 


missioper — Police  duties — Mr.  W.  E.  Parry-Okeden, 
I.S.O.,  Commissioner — Major  W.  G.  Cahill,  Commissioner 
— Bank  and  pay — Present  distribution.  .  .  .  365 

CHAPTER    XXI 

BLACK   TRACKERS    AT   WORK 

In  olden  days — The  bushranging  era — Notable  characters — Re- 
cruiting— An  instructive  art — Early  schooling — Women 
trackers — "  Mayella  " — Lost  in  the  bush — Reading  a  track 
— A  Murchison  story — "  That  one  Kendy  track  " — An 
object  lesson  in  scouting — A  "  jackeroo  "  hunt — On  the 
trail — Found  at  last — "  Billy  " — A  South  African  test 
— Pay — Past  and  present  •«  .  *  .'  .  ....  386 

CHAPTER    XXII 

THE   POLICE   TBOOPEB    OF   TO-DAY 

Entering  the  force — Preliminary  tests — At  the  police  depot — 
— A  day's  routine — The  riding  school — Drill — "First  Aid " 
— Class  work — End  of  probation — Practical  Education 
— Manifold  duties — Compensations — A  long  journey — 
"  Hatters  " — The  lighter  side — Wanted  a  divorce — A 
Queensland  episode — Summing  up  .  .  .  .401 

APPENDICES. 

A.  MEMORANDUM  TO  THE  ADMIRALTY  BY  LORD  SYDNEY, 

AUGUST,  1786 413 

B.  TEXT  OP  TREATY  MADE  BETWEEN  JOHN  BATMAN   AND 

THE  ABORIGINAL  CHIEFS  OF  PORT  PHILLIP  DISTRICT, 
1835.          « 416 

C.  THE  BUSHRANGERS  ACT  OF  1830         .          .          .          .418 

D.  LIST  OF  POLICE  KILLED  OR  WOUNDED  BY  BUSHRANGERS, 

FROM  1861  TO  1879 420 

E.  HOW  TO  JOIN  THE  MOUNTED  POLICE  ....     422 

F.  LIST  OF  POLICE  COMMANDANTS  AND  COMMISSIONERS  424 


—  xvi  — 


LIST   OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


INSPECTOR-GENERAL  E.  C.  DAY,  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

POLICE  FORCE  ......  Frontispiece 

A  COUNTRY  ROAD  IN  THE  N.S.W.  BUSH      .         .Facing  page  16 

THE   OLD   AND   THE   NEW                ....  ,,24 
MOUNTED      CONSTABLE      AND      BLACK       TRACKER 

STARTING  ON  A  PATROL  ....  ,,  32 
A  CAMP  IN  THE  BUSH  .....  ,,40 
MR.  THOMAS  GARVIN,  I.S.O.,  LATE  INSPECTOR- 
GENERAL,  NEW  SOUTH  WALES  POLICE  FORCE  ,,  48 
ON  THE  TRAIL  IN  THE  BACK  COUNTRY  .  .  ,,  56 
A  CONFERENCE  OF  POLICE  COMMISSIONERS,  1903  .  ,,  64 
"  PANNING  "  FOR  GOLD  .....  ,,80 
A  GOLD  ESCORT  OF  THE  SIXTIES  ...  ,,  88 
IN  A  BLACKFELLOWS'  CAMP  ....  „  104 

ROBERT  O'HARA  BURKE  .         .         .         .         .  Page  109 

MOUNTED  CONSTABLE  ON  ESCORT  DUTY  WITH 

CATTLE  KILLERS,  NORTH-WEST  TERRITORY  .Facing  page  112 

CHIEF  COMMISSIONER  T.  O'CALLAGHAN,  VICTORIAN 

POLICE  FORCE  ......  „  128 

THREE   NOTORIOUS   BUSHRANGERS      '  .             .             .  ,,              144 

A   STATION   IN   THE   AUSTRALIAN   BUSH          .             .  ,,              160 

THE   CAPTORS   OF   THE    "  MOONLIGHT  "    GANG         .  „              176 

ON   THE   TRAIL   OF   THE   KELLYS             .             .             .  „              184 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES  MOUNTED  POLICE,  SYDNEY 

HEADQUARTERS  .  .  .  .  .  ,,  192 

TROOPERS  AT  MOUNTED  DRILL,  REDFERN  BAR- 
RACKS, SYDNEY  .  .  .  .  .  „  200 

THE   HON.   EDMUND   FOSBERY,    C.M.G.              .             .  „              208 

INSPECTOR  J.  S.  CLARKE,  DRILL  INSTRUCTOR, 

N.S.W.  MOUNTED  POLICE  ....  ,,  216 

CHIEF  COMMISSIONER  W.  H.  RAYMOND,  SOUTH 

AUSTRALIAN  POLICE  FORCE  „  224 

—  xvii  — 


VICTORIAN    MOUNTED    POLICE,     ST.    KILDA    EOAD 

BARRACKS,  MELBOURNE     .         .         .         .Facing  page  240 

A  SOUTH  AUSTRALIAN  MOUNTED  POLICEMAN       .  ,,          248 
IN  THE  STONY  DESERT.    SOUTH  AUSTRALIAN 

TROOPERS  ON  CAMELS       .         .         .         .  ,,          256 
PISTOL-CARBINE  USED  BY  THE  SOUTH  AUSTRALIAN 

MOUNTED  POLICE      .         ...         .  ,,          264 
NATIVES  OF  THE  ANDROWILLA  TRIBE,  NORTHERN 

TERRITORY      V        .         .         .         .         .  „          280 
CAPTAIN  FRED  HARE,  CHIEF  COMMISSIONER  WEST 

AUSTRALIAN  POLICE  FORCE         .         .         .  ,,          288 
NATIVES  IN   CORROBBOREE   ATTIRE,    NORTHERN 

TERRITORY ,,         304 

AT  A  "  WATER  SOAK  ".....  „          312 
WEST    AUSTRALIAN    MOUNTED    POLICE,    HEAD- 
QUARTERS BARRACKS,  PERTH      .         .         .  „          320 
"  PIGEON'S  "  STRONGHOLD        .         .         .         .  ,,          328 
COOLGARDIE  GOLDFIELD  .         .         .         .         .  ,,          336 
A  PEARLING  LUGGER  OFF  THE  WEST  COAST    .        .  „         344 
MAJOR  W.  G.  CAHILL,  V.D.,  COMMISSIONER  QUEENS- 
LAND POLICE  FORCE          .         .         .         .  ,,          352 
GYMPIE,  QUEENSLAND      .         .         .         .         .  ,,          360 
NATIVE  MOUNTED  POLICE  OF  QUEENSLAND  WITH 

WHITE  OFFICER         .         .         .         .         .  ,,          368 

BLACK  POLICE  TROOPERS  IN  BARRACKS     .         .  ,,          376 

TROOPERS  OF  THE  QUEENSLAND  MOUNTED  POLICE  ,,          384 

COURT  HOUSE,  DARNLEY  ISLAND,  N.  QUEENSLAND  .  ,,          392 

TYPES  OF  NATIVE  TRACKERS    .         .         .         .  ,,          400 

A  QUEENSLAND  TROOPER  POLICEMAN         .         .  408 


MAPS  AND  DIAGRAMS. 

SKETCH  MAP  OF  THE  EARLY  PENAL  SETTLEMENT, 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES  ......  Page      9 

OLD   MELBOURNE,    1838      .             .             .  .  .  „  29 

SKETCH  MAP   OF  VAN   DIEMEN'S   LAND  .  .  „  61 

BALLARAT  IN   THE   FIFTIES           .             .  .  .  .           ,,  99 

"  FOR  MERITORIOUS   CONDUCT  "  .  .  ,,  385 

MAP  OF  AUSTRALIA  ....         .Facing page  426 


—  xviii  — 


THE 
TROOPER  POLICE  OF  AUSTRALIA 

CHAPTER   I 

SOLDIERS  AND   CONVICTS. — I 

1788-1821 

Captain  Cook's  voyage — Sir  Joseph  Banks — The  convict  question — Mr. 
Matra's  proposal — The  American  loyalists — Lord  Sydney's  "  Plan  " 
— "  The  First  Fleet  " — Captain  Phillip  at  Botany  Bay — Removal 
to  Sydney — Troubles  and  dissensions — A  "  night  watch  "  of  convicts 
— Major  Grose  governor — The  New  South  Wales  Corps — Captain 
King — The  "  Armed  Association  " — Captain  Bligh's  stormy  rule — 
Convicts  assigned  as  servants — Governor  Macquarie — The  "  Emanci- 
pists " — Opposition  to  the  new  scheme — Exploration  in  the  colony. 

IT  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  volume  to  dwell  upon  the 
early  discoverers  of  Australia.  The  story  of  the  ad- 
venturous voyages  of  the  Spaniard  Torres,  the  Dutch  cap- 
tains Dirk  Hartog,  Pieter  Nuyts,  Francis  Pelsart  and  Abel 
Tasman,  together  with  that  of  the  famous  English  buc- 
caneer, William  Dampier,  has  been  often  told,  and  should  be 
familiar  to  every  student  of  colonial  history.  In  our  con- 
sideration of  the  Mounted  Police  of  the  several  states, 
however,  it  will  be  necessary  to  make  a  brief  survey  of  the 
developments  immediately  following  upon  the  re-discovery 
of  the  island-continent  by  Captain  Cook  in  1770,  for  from 
that  epoch-making  event  we  may  trace  the  movement  which 
led  to  the  ultimate  settlement  of  the  country  and  the  genesis 
of  an  established  police  force. 

—  i     •-  ji 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

In  that  year  1770  the  Endeavour,  with  Cook  and  two 
distinguished  scientists,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Joseph  Banks 
and  Dr.  Solander,  sailed  from  Tahiti,  where  the  Transit  of 
Venus  had  been  successfully  observed,  and,  having  coasted 
the  islands  of  New  Zealand,  arrived  at  the  point  on  the  Aus- 
tralian mainland  known  as  Cape  Howe.  Thence  Cook 
bore  away  to  the  north-east,  until  the  ship  dropped  anchor  in 
an  inlet  which,  for  obvious  reasons,  he  was  disposed  to  call 
Stingray  Bay.  This  name  was  subsequently  exchanged 
for  the  better  known  one  of  Botany  Bay,  owing  to  the  wealth 
of  plants  and  flowers  that  Banks  and  Solander  found  on  its 
shores. 

Cook's  land  explorations  were  very  meagre.  Although  he 
proceeded  westward  and  northward  for  a  distance  of  two 
thousand  miles — so  far  as  Cape  York,  indeed — he  touched 
only  the  fringe  of  a  country  which  by  no  means  impressed  him 
favourably.  On  his  return  to  England  he  had  little  to  say  for 
his  new-found  land  of  New  South  Wales,  this  being  the  name 
bestowed  upon  it.  Not  so,  however,  the  younger  and  more 
enthusiastic  Joseph  Banks.  From  the  first  the  latter 
realised  that  here  was  a  country  worthy  of  English  occu- 
pation. The  little  he  had  seen  of  it  was  enough  to  con- 
vince him  of  its  possibilities  of  development,  and  to  the  end 
of  his  life  he  never  ceased  to  take  a  keen  interest  in  its 
progress.  A  few  years  after  the  Endeavour's  memorable 
voyage  we  find  Banks  giving  evidence  before  a  special  Parlia- 
mentary committee  on  the  suitability  of  New  South  Wales 
as  a  prospective  home  for  surplus  criminals. 

The  question  of  the  disposal  of  convicts  had  by  this 
time  assumed  a  most  serious  aspect.  The  American  Revo- 
lution of  1775,  by  which  the  New  England  colonies  were  lost 
to  us  irrevocably,  had  had  the  effect  of  closing  the  over-seas 

—  2  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

plantations  as  a  destination  for  convicted  prisoners.  Trans- 
portation for  certain  offences  had  been  in  vogue  for  a  long 
period — since  the  days  of  the  first  Charles,  to  be  precise — 
and  the  system  had  served  to  populate  our  embryo  colonies 
in  the  New  World  at  the  same  time  that  it  provided  a  source 
of  relief  to  the  already  crowded  gaols  of  the  mother-country. 

Thus,  then,  was  the  attention  of  the  public  re-directed 
to  the  great  continent  which  was  still  popularly  known  as 
New  Holland,  and  which,  for  all  that  any  one  cared,  might 
be  left  to  the  Dutch  to  be  settled  and  fostered.  But  nothing 
was  to  be  done  immediately.  King  George  the  Third's 
Government,  with  Lord  North  at  its  head,  had  its  hands  full 
with  the  revolting  American  colonists,  and  its  attitude  towards 
the  unknown  southern  land  was,  not  unnaturally,  apathetic. 
New  Holland,  or  New  South  Wales,  or  Terra  Australis  In- 
cognita, or  whatever  you  liked  to  call  it,  was  very  far  away, 
very  bleak  and  inhospitable  (except  for  the  reports  of  one 
or  two  enthusiasts),  and  it  was  peopled  by  a  race  of  savages 
no  less  formidable  than  those  who  had  murdered  Captain 
Cook  on  his  last  voyage  to  the  South  Seas.  It  was  really 
unattractive  to  the  popular  mind. 

Some  years  later,  however,  the  question  of  Australian 
settlement  cropped  up  again  with  a  persistency  that  would 
not  be  denied.  In  addition  to  the  necessity  for  finding  an 
asylum  for  the  thousands  of  convicts  whose  increasing  num- 
bers were  an  embarrassment  to  the  prison  authorities,  there 
had  arisen  the  need  for  affording  protection  to  the  many 
American  loyalists  who  were  now  refugees  from  their  former 
home.  So,  in  1783,  one  James  Maria  Matra  came  to  the  fore 
suddenly  with  a  proposal  that  offered  a  solution  to  both 
these  urgent  problems. 

Matra  had  been  a  member  of  the  expedition  that  sailed  in 

^__     O     


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  Endeavour,  having  held  the  position  of  midshipman. 
He  had  no  doubt  imbibed  a  good  deal  of  the  enthusiasm  dis- 
played by  Banks.  His  suggestion,  respectfully  submitted  to 
his  Majesty's  Government,  was  that  in  New  South  Wales 
would  be  found  an  admirable  refuge  for  the  loyalists  in  ques- 
tion, a  people  whom,  he  said,  "  Great  Britain  is  bound  by 
every  tie  of  honour  and  gratitude  to  protect  and  support 
where  they  may  repair  their  broken  fortunes  and  again 
enjoy  their  former  domestic  felicity."  To  provide  them 
with  efficient  labour  Kanakas  were  to  be  introduced  from 
the  neighbouring  islands,  with  a  sprinkling  of  Chinese.  The 
many  natural  advantages  that  the  new  land  held  out, 
advantages  confirmed  by  his  own  observation,  were  duly  put 
forward,  while  it  was  argued  that  with  good  management 
the  settlers  "  in  twenty  or  thirty  years  might  cause  a  re- 
volution in  the  whole  system  of  European  commerce,  and 
secure  to  England  a  monopoly  of  some  part  of  it  and  a  large 
share  of  the  whole."  Matra  was  not  without  the  visions  of 
an  empire-builder. 

The  upshot  of  this  ingenious  proposition  was  that  steps 
were  taken  in  due  course  to  plant  a  little  colony  on  the  spot 
where  Cook  and  his  companions  had  first  landed.  But  it 
was  not  destined  to  be  on  the  lines  originally  laid  down. 
The  American  loyalists  found  that  the  Government's  solici- 
tude for  their  welfare  had  blown  cold,  and  as  time  went  by 
and  delay  after  delay  occurred,  the  majority  of  them  with- 
drew any  support  they  had  lent  to  this  novel  emigration 
scheme  and  betook  themselves  to  Eastern  Canada. 

What  proved  to  be  the  culminating  point  of  their  decision 
was  the  stipulation  that  transportation  of  convicts  to  New 
South  Wales  should  go  hand  in  hand  with  its  colonisation. 
Lord  Sydney  was  now  at  the  head  of  the  Home  Office,  and 

_  4  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

the  idea  of  forming  a  penal  settlement  in  this  quarter  of  the 
world  strongly  commended  itself  to  him.  A  recent  at- 
tempt to  utilise  Africa  for  the  purpose  had  proved  abortive. 
It  was,  furthermore,  a  unique  opportunity  for  putting  into 
practice  certain  theories  for  the  treatment  of  felons  that  were 
being  exploited.  The  new  Australian  land,  in  fact,  was  to  be 
converted  into  a  reformatory  as  well  as  a  prison. 

Yet  a  further  consideration,  it  may  be  noted,  was  a  de- 
sire to  forestall  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  France  to  gain  a 
footing  in  this  region  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  known  that  such 
a  step  was  in  contemplation,  and,  indeed,  French  ships 
under  Du  Fresne,  La  Perouse  and  D'Entrecasteaux,  fol- 
lowed hard  upon  the  heels  of  Cook  and  Phillip  when  they 
ventured  into  the  southern  seas. 

Having  made  up  his  mind  to  go  forward  with  the  great 
project,  Lord  Sydney  drew  up  the  "  Heads  of  a  plan  for  the 
establishment  of  a  colony  in  New  South  Wales  "  *  and  in- 
structed the  Admiralty  to  make  all  necessary  arrangements 
with  as  little  delay  as  possible.  For  the  leader  of  his  ex- 
pedition he  had  selected  Captain  Arthur  Phillip,  a  naval 
commander  of  experience  and  distinction,  and  one  who  pos- 
sessed remarkable  qualities  of  tact  and  judgment.  As  events 
proved,  it  was  a  wise  choice.  Phillip  threw  himself  into 
the  work  of  preparation  with  all  his  energy.  Thanks  to 
his  assistance  the  authorities  were  kept  up  to  the  mark,  and 
by  May  1787  all  was  hi  readiness  for  a  start  to  be  made. 

"  The  First  Fleet,"  as  it  is  known  in  Australian  history, 
comprised  eleven  vessels  :  Six  transports,  three  store  ships,2 
the  20-gun  frigate  H.M.S.  Sirius  and  the  armed  tender 

1  See  Appendix  A. 

2  The  Alexander,  Charlotte,  Scarborough,  Friendship,  Prince  of  Wales, 
Lady  Penrhyn,  transports,  from  270  to  450  tons ;    the  Fishburn,  Golden 
Orove,  Borrodale,  store  ships. 

5 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Supply.  In  all  these  carried  over  1,000  persons,  of  whom  750 
were  convicts.  After  a  safe  voyage  round  the  Cape  the 
fleet  reached  Botany  Bay  on  January  18th,  but  Phillip 
saw  at  once  that  the  place  was  unfitted  for  his  purpose. 
He  accordingly  set  out  along  the  coast  to  the  northward, 
and  was  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  the  magnificent  har- 
bour of  Port  Jackson.  Cook  had  seen  its  entrance  between 
the  two  heads,  but  had  passed  by  ignorant  of  its  wonderful 
capacity.  Here,  at  a  spot  which  was  named  Sydney  Cove  in 
honour  of  Lord  Sydney,  Phillip  decided  to  make  his  landing. 
In  a  little  while  the  remainder  of  the  vessels  were  brought 
round,  and  the  work  of  settlement  was  forthwith  entered 
upon. 

No  colonial  administrator  ever  had  a  more  unenviable 
task  to  perform  than  that  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  Captain 
Phillip,  Governor  and  Captain-General  of  New  South  Wales. 
In  a  strange  country  whose  resources  were  practically  un- 
known he  had  to  house  and  maintain  a  community  of  over  a 
thousand  people,  the  bulk  of  whom  were  convicted  felons,  by 
disposition  unamenable  to  discipline  and  averse  to  under- 
taking any  manual  labour.  To  add  to  his  difficulties  he  soon 
found  himself  deprived  of  the  support  of  the  military,  upon 
whom  he  naturally  relied  to  assist  him  in  the  work  of  policing 
the  convict  population.  Nearly  two  hundred  marines,  under 
Major  Ross,  had  accompanied  the  expedition. 

"  I  requested,"  Phillip  wrote  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Sydney, 
"  that  officers  would,  when  they  saw  the  convicts  diligent,  say 
a  few  words  of  encouragement  to  them,  and  that  when  they 
saw  them  idle,  or  met  them  straggling  in  the  woods,  they 
would  threaten  them  with  punishment.  This  only  I  desired 
when  officers  could  do  it  without  going  out  of  their  way  ;  it 
was  all  I  asked,  and  was  pointedly  refused.  They  declared 

—  6  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

against  what  they  called  an  interference  with  convicts,  and  I 
found  myself  obliged  to  give  up  the  little  plan  I  had  formed 
in  the  passage  for  the  government  of  these  people,  and  which, 
had  it  even  been  proposed  to  the  officers,  required  no  more 
from  them  than  the  hearing  of  an  appeal  the  overseer  might 
find  it  necessary  to  make,  and  a  report  from  the  officer  to 
me  .  .  .  but  which  has  never  been  asked  of  the  officers 
since  they  declined  any  kind  of  interference." 

The  early  years  of  the  little  colony  were  marked  by  end- 
less trouble  and  dissension.  Cattle  and  sheep,  that  had  been 
brought  out,  died  or  strayed  away  in  the  bush  and  were  lost ; 
provisions  ran  short,  mainly  owing  to  the  inability  on  the  part 
of  the  settlers  to  take  up  farming,  until  many  were  of  the 
opinion  of  Major  Ross  that  it  would  be  cheaper  "  to  feed  the 
convicts  on  turtle  and  venison  at  the  London  Tavern,"  than 
be  at  the  expense  of  sending  them  there.  As  for  the  soldiery, 
they  openly  flouted  the  Governor  and  comported  themselves 
arrogantly  towards  both  bond  and  free.  There  was,  more- 
over, constant  apprehension  of  hostilities  with  the  natives, 
whom  Phillip  was  desirous  to  placate  but  who  suffered 
numberless  wrongs  at  the  hands  of  the  convicts  and  the 
marines.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  in  the  circum- 
stances many  attempts  to  escape  were  made  by  the  convicts, 
and  that  robberies  from  the  stores,  together  with  acts  of 
violence,  were  of  frequent  occurrence. 

In  the  absence  of  assistance  from  the  military,  and  as 
some  precaution  against  theft  of  both  public  and  private 
property,  the  Governor  now  instituted  a  night  watch  of 
twelve  persons,  who  patrolled  the  settlement  from  sunset  to 
dawn.  The  document  containing  the  regulations  for  this 
embryo  police  force  was  dated  August  7th,  1789,  and 
gave  the  names  of  the  watch  as  follows  :  Herbert  Keeling, 

__.  fj  •--.-!_. 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Charles  Peat,  John  Harris,  John  Coen  Walsh,  John  Neal, 
John  Massey  Cox,  William  Bradbury,  James  Clark,  Josh 
Marshall,  Thomas  Oldfield,  George  Robinson,  and  John 
Archer.  Three  of  these  were  afterwards  replaced  by  W. 
Hubbard,  John  Anderson,  and  Stephen  Le  Grove.  All  the 
above,  be  it  noted,  were  convicts,  selected  for  this  special 
duty  because  of  their  good  behaviour,  and  there  is  plenty  of 
evidence  that  they  performed  their  task  faithfully.  On 
one  occasion  they  captured  a  party  of  six  marines  who,  by 
means  of  duplicate  keys,  had  broken  into  a  store-house  to 
steal  flour.  It  was  a  time  when  every  one  in  the  settlement* 
from  the  Governor  downwards,  was  living  on  half  rations 
of  salt  meat,  bread  and  peas,  and  this  fact  made  the  enor- 
mity of  the  crime  all  the  greater.  The  six  marines,  despite 
their  commander's  remonstrances,  were  duly  hanged. 

During  the  winter  of  1790  a  second  fleet  of  transports 
arrived  with  prisoners  from  home,  these  being  distributed 
over  the  area  of  the  gaol  land.  The  settlement  by  this  time 
had  spread  as  far  as  the  Hawkesbury  River  on  the  north 
and  west,  the  river  valley  proving  to  be  suitable  for  farming 
operations.  Sydney  Cove  itself  was  far  too  rocky  and  infertile 
for  cultivation,  and  the  first  experimental  farm  had  been 
started  at  Parramatta,  at  the  head  of  the  harbour.  Away 
from  the  mainland  there  was  also  a  settlement  on  Norfolk 
Island,  where  the  community  was  successful  in  raising  enough 
grain  to  maintain  itself. 

With  the  newly-arrived  ships  from  England  came  the 
first  detachment  of  the  New  South  Wales  Corps,  a  regiment 
which  was  destined  to  play  a  great  part  in  the  history  of  the 
colony.  The  Corps  was  intended  to  relieve  the  marines 
originally  sent  out,  and  was  under  the  command  of  Major 
Francis  Grose,  who  was  responsible  for  its  inception.  At  the 

—  8  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

end  of  1792,  after  having  seen  the  settlement  pass  through 
many  vicissitudes,  Governor  Phillip  relinquished  the  reins 
of  office  and  returned  home.  Major  Grose,  by  virtue  of  his 
commission  as  Lieutenant-Go vernor,  remained  at  the  head 
of  affairs. 

The  immediate  outcome  of  this  change  was  the  inaugura- 
tion of  an  era  of  crime  and  lawlessness.  The  New  South 
Wales  Corps  was  composed  mainly  of  men  who  had  joined 
in  the  expectation  of  finding  the  new  country  more  or  less  of 
an  Eldorado.  They  considered  only  their  own  personal  gain, 
and  to  advantage  themselves  did  not  scruple  to  encourage 
the  evil  passions  of  those  committed  to  their  charge.  At 
this  period  the  practice  was  begun  of  assigning  convicts  as 
servants  or  farm  labourers  to  officers  of  the  Corps.  Another 
privilege  of  the  military  was  the  purchase  of  spirits  at  cost 
price.  In  this  concession  the  officers  saw  a  quick  road  to 
wealth.  Most  of  them  in  time  became  farmers  or  engaged  in 
other  industries  that  made  them  large  employers  of  labour, 
and  in  lieu  of  money  they  found  rum  highly  acceptable  to 
the  convicts.  In  a  little  while  farmers  in  other  districts 
began  to  distil  their  grain  instead  of  selling  it  for  food-stuff, 
for  the  high  prices  fetched  by  spirits  made  this  method  more 
lucrative.  The  result  was  what  might  have  been  expected. 
Robbery  and  murder  became  more  and  more  rampant  as 
police  supervision  became  more  lax,  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
colony  sank  to  a  low  ebb. 

Major  Grose's  rule  lasted  two  years.  For  some  months 
the  governorship  then  devolved  upon  Captain  William 
Paterson,  the  senior  military  officer,  after  whom  came  Captain 
John  Hunter,  the  one-time  commander  of  the  Sirius,  who 
vainly  endeavoured  to  stem  the  flood  of  abuses.  The  next 
governor  was  Captain^Philip  King,  Phillip's  able  lieutenant 

—  10  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

in  Norfolk  Island  during  the  earliest  years  of  the  colony. 
King  set  about  reform  with  a  strong  hand,  and  was  instru- 
mental to  a  large  degree  in  checking  the  free  sale  of  spirits. 
Thousands  of  gallons  of  rum  and  wine  were  sent  away,  amid 
general  indignation.  Other  monopolies  and  forms  of  extor- 
tion were  also  restricted,  so  that  for  a  season  the  settlers 
enjoyed  somewhat  improved  conditions. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  we  first  hear  of  a  police  force, 
apart  from  the  soldiery,  being  enrolled.  The  reason  for 
this  was  the  unsettled  state  of  the  convicts,  among  whom 
was  now  included  a  large  number  of  "  politicals  "  transported 
for  participation  in  the  Irish  Rebellion  of  1798.  These 
factious  newcomers  were  ripe  for  insurrection,  and  so 
ominous  did  the  situation  become  that  the  free  settlers 
formed  themselves  into  an  "  Armed  Association  "  to  keep  a 
watchful  eye  on  the  malcontents  and  be  in  readiness  to 
counter  any  outbreak.  A  further  cause  for  anxiety  was  the 
rumour  that  the  French,  with  whom  war  had  broken  out, 
contemplated  making  a  descent  upon  New  South  Wales. 

That  the  colonists'  fears  of  impending  trouble  were  not 
groundless  was  evidenced  early  in  1804,  when  an  organised 
conspiracy  was  revealed.  Prompt  measures  were  taken  : 
the  military  pursued  the  rebels  to  the  Hawkesbury,  and  a 
brisk  fight  ensued.  In  the  end  the  convicts  were  dispersed, 
several  being  killed,  while  the  leaders  were  made  prisoners. 
Eight  of  the  principal  offenders  were  subsequently  executed. 

King's  occupation  of  office  ceased  in  1806,  when  he  was 
succeeded  by  Captain  Bligh,  famous  for  all  time  through  his 
connection  with  the  mutiny  of  the  Bounty.  Unhappily  for 
himself,  as  for  the  colony,  Bligh  was  a  man  of  strong  pre- 
judices and  violent  temper.  He  had  been  known  as  a  mar- 
tinet while  in  the  Navy,  and  he  now  proceeded  to  confirm 

—  ii  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

that  reputation  by  his  high-handed  dealings  with  the  New 
South  Wales  Corps.  His  two  years  of  rule  are  one  continu- 
ous record  of  conflict  with  the  military  and  with  certain  of 
the  better-class  settlers.  Among  the  latter  was  John  Mac- 
arthur,  an  ex-officer  of  the  Corps  and  an  enterprising  colonist 
who  was  interesting  himself  in  the  wool  industry  among 
other  things.  Macarthur  had  been  prominent  in  all  the 
recent  dissensions  between  the  late  governor  and  the  Corps, 
having  sided  with  his  former  comrades :  against  him, 
therefore,  Bligh  waged  bitter  war.  The  climax  came  when 
the  Governor  arrested  his  enemy  on  a  trumped-up  charge 
and  proposed  to  put  him  on  trial.  Macarthur's  military 
friends  rallied  round  him,  a  popular  cry  was  raised  demand- 
ing Bligh's  deposition,  and  shortly  after  the  Governor  was 
taken  prisoner  by  force  of  arms. 

There  was  now  an  interregnum  of  another  two  years, 
during  which  period  officers  of  the  New  South  Wales  Corps 
administered  affairs.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  in  1810,  the 
regiment,  whose  mutiny  against  Bligh  had  met  with  dis- 
favour at  home,  was  recalled  and  a  new  Governor  appeared 
hi  the  person  of  Major-General  Lachlan  Macquarie.  With 
him  came  a  fresh  military  prison  guard,  the  102nd  Regiment. 

The  practice  of  assigning  convicts  as  farm  servants,  first 
to  officers  of  the  New  South  Wales  Corps  and  later  to  settlers, 
did  not  tend  in  the  main  to  their  better  conduct.  The 
prisoners  generally  had  little  restraint  imposed  upon  them 
by  masters  who  in  several  ways  made  money  out  of  them. 
Too  many  opportunities  were  provided  for  their  indulgence 
in  vice  and  debauchery,  for  if  their  owners  were  free  men 
their  overseers  were  usually  of  the  convict  class,  and  nothing 
was  wanting  to  inflame  them  into  open  rebellion  whenever 
occasion  offered.  As  we  have  seen,  organised  insurrection 

—  12  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

did  rear  its  head  in  King's  time,  this  being  the  most  serious 
of  the  several  risings  among  the  "  croppies,"  as  the  con- 
victs were  termed.  The  vigilance  of  the  guards  was  seldom 
allowed  to  be  relaxed.  A  second  outbreak,  four  years 
later,  was  only  frustrated  in  time  to  prevent  the  whole 
colony  being  plunged  into  anarchy  by  a  general  massacre 
of  the  principal  residents. 

With  Governor  Macquarie's  advent  convict  life  entered 
upon  a  new  phase.  In  the  years  that  had  elapsed  since  the 
arrival  of  the  First  Fleet  a  large  number  of  the  prisoners  had 
worked  out  their  sentences,  while  others  had  received  pardons. 
It  was  with  these,  the  "  emancipists,"  that  the  Governor's 
chief  consideration  lay.  The  time  had  come  when  the 
colony  was  to  be  tested  as  a  reformatory.  "  When  once  a 
man  is  free  his  former  state  should  no  longer  be  remembered 
or  allowed  to  act  against  him  :  let  him  then  feel  himself 
eligible  for  any  situation  which  he  had  by  a  long  term  of 
upright  conduct  proved  himself  worthy  of  filling  "  :  so  the 
Governor  expressed  himself,  and  with  this  guiding  principle 
before  him  he  set  about  the  task  of  reclamation. 

There  were  two  great  obstacles  in  the  way,  however, 
against  which  Macquarie  battled  long  and  strenuously.  In 
the  first  place  so  many  of  the  emancipists  were  totally  un- 
fitted for  civil  life.  The  unbridled  licence  of  former  regimes 
had  not  been  conducive  to  reform,  and  the  material  on  which 
he  endeavoured  to  work  was  of  the  poorest  kind.  Secondly, 
although  the  New  South  Wales  Corps  had  been  withdrawn, 
many  of  the  officers  still  remained  in  the  colony,  where  they 
were  engaged  in  varied  pursuits.  They  mostly  occupied 
high  and  influential  positions.  When  the  Governor's 
amiable  intentions  towards  the  emancipists  were  made 
known  a  storm  of  protest  arose  from  those  ex-officers  and 

—  13  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  leading  settlers  who  shared  their  views.  In  their 
opinion  the  experiment  was  too  dangerous  a  one.  Not  only 
did  they  object  to  associating  with  men  whose  careers  had 
been  tainted  with  crime,  they  feared  the  consequences  of  a 
movement  which,  however  lofty  it  might  be  in  its  ideals, 
would  rob  transportation  of  half  its  terrors  and  render  it 
less  of  a  deterrent  to  wrong-doing. 

The  opposition  took  a  firm  stand,  but  despite  this  Mac- 
quarie  persisted  in  his  schemes  of  reform.  He  strove  to 
force  the  emancipists  into  such  professions  and  trades  as 
were  open  to  them,  and  in  so  doing  found  that  he  had  stirred 
up  a  veritable  hornet's  nest.  Shamefully  duped  by  his 
proteges  and  cordially  hated  by  the  settlers,  over  whose 
objections  he  rode  rough-shod,  the  Governor  proceeded  to 
further  imperil  his  position.  He  was  a  man  of  big  ideas, 
but  with  the  weakness  of  vanity.  Public  works,  which 
would  give  employment  to  many,  were  set  in  progress,  road- 
making,  bridge-building,  and  the  construction  of  schools 
and  other  institutions  being  commenced  in  various  directions. 
There  were  many  enemies  ready  to  condemn  these  ventures 
as  reckless  extravagance  and  to  help  hi  bringing  about  his 
downfall.  An  agitation  was  set  on  foot  that  called  the 
attention  of  the  home  authorities  to  the  state  of  affairs, 
and  in  1818  Commissioner  Bigge  was  despatched  from 
England  to  make  inquiry  into  the  alleged  maladministra- 
tion. This  official's  report  was  adverse  ;  three  years  later 
Macquarie  was  recalled. 

Before  leaving  this  chapter  of  Australian  history  it  is 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  several  exploring  expeditions  that 
at  this  period  aided  in  the  expansion  of  the  colony.  Until 
Macquarie's  appointment  very  little  had  been  done  in  this 
direction.  Under  his  care  the  formidable  barrier  of  the 

—  14  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,   1788-1821 

Blue  Mountains  was  broken  through,  and  a  wide  region  of 
fine  pastoral  and  agricultural  land  beyond  laid  open  to 
occupation.  The  leaders  in  this  work  were  Gregory  Blax- 
land,  Lieutenant  William  Lawson  (102nd  Regiment), 
and  William  Charles  Wentworth.  These  three  were  the 
first  to  cross  the  mountains.  In  their  trail  followed  George 
Evans,  Deputy-Surveyor-General,  to  discover  the  Fish, 
Macquarie  and  Lachlan  rivers  ;  and  the  brothers  Hume, 
who  opened  up  the  country  round  Berrima  and  Bong-Bong. 
To  facilitate  the  settlement  of  this  new  territory  roads  were 
quickly  made,  and  soon  the  township  of  Bathurst  sprang 
into  being. 

Other  explorers  of  note  were  John  Oxley,  the  Surveyor- 
General,  and  a  surveyor  named  Meehan.  In  his  first  journey 
in  1817,  the  former  traced  the  Lachlan  and  Macquarie 
rivers  for  some  hundreds  of  miles,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
found  many  smaller  streams  running  north-east.  Twice, 
we  read,  Oxley  was  on  the  point  of  discovering  the  Murrum- 
bidgee,  but  he  returned  to  Sydney  without  having  seen  its 
waters  and  with  the  conviction  that  the  interior  was  too 
marshy  to  be  habitable. 

Oxley 's  second  journey,  a  year  later,  carried  him  down 
the  Macquarie  to  Mount  Harris,  whence  he  struck  out  across 
country  to  Port  Macquarie.  In  the  course  of  this  trip  he 
discovered  and  named  several  new  rivers,  including  the 
Castlereagh,  the  Peel  and  the  Apsley,  with  the  rich  grass- 
lands of  the  Liverpool  Plains. 

Meehan's  chief  contribution  to  the  sum  total  of  explora- 
tion was  the  opening  up  of  the  Goulburn  Plains  and  the 
adjoining  district,  a  wide  and  fertile  expanse  of  land.  Into 
all  this  virgin  territory,  where  the  blacks  had  held  undis- 
puted dominion,  the  colonists  eagerly  flocked,  driving  their 

—  15  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

sheep  and  cattle  before  them.     A  new  era  for  the  colony  had 
begun. 

The  encouragement  of  exploration  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  brightest  feature  of  Governor  Macquarie's  reign. 
It  was  a  matter  of  pride  for  him  that  when  he  left  New  South 
Wales  he  had  enlarged  its  bounds  by  several  hundreds  of 
miles  and  thus  given_]a  new  impetus  to  colonisation. 


—  16  — 


CHAPTER   II 

SOLDIERS  AND   CONVICTS. — II 

1821-1835 

Commissioner  Bigge — A  new  order — Governor  Brisbane — A  mounted 
police  force — Governor  Darling — Bushranging — Distribution  of  troops 
— A  ghost  story — Black  tracking — Van  Diemen's  Land — Early  troubles 
with  convicts — Exploration  in  New  South  Wales — Oxley — Allan 
Cunningham — Captain  Sturt  discovers  the  Darling — Sir  Thomas 
Mitchell — Hamilton  Hume  at  Geelong — A  settlement  at  Port  Phillip — 
John  Batman — Treaty  with  the  natives — Melbourne  founded — Swan 
River  settlement  in  West  Australia — Perth  and  Fremantle — Wake- 
field's  scheme — South  Australia  colonised. 

MR.  COMMISSIONER  BIGGE'S  report  foreshadowed 
many  wise  and  far-reaching  reforms,  but  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  its  recommendations  was  that  which 
urged  the  further  settlement  of  the  colony.  The  old  view 
which  had  held  New  South  Wales  cheaply  as  a  dumping- 
ground  for  criminals  was  now  to  be  abandoned  :  there  were 
other  and  greater  possibilities  in  the  new  country.  Let  free 
settlers  be  encouraged  to  go  out,  said  the  Commissioner  in 
effect,  young  men  of  good  character  and  some  capital ;  let 
land  be  offered  them  on  easy  terms ;  and,  further,  let  convict 
labour  be  supplied  them  with  proper  restrictions.  New 
South  Wales  had  not  been  altogether  successful  as  a  gaol  ; 
it  was  worth  experimenting  upon  as  a  plantation  of  such  a 
nature  as  the  ones  instituted  two  hundred  years  before  in 
the  New  World. 

This  broader  scheme  in  due  course  commended  itself  to 
—  17  —  c 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  authorities  at  home,  and  steps  were  taken  to  induce  the 
right  type  of  immigrant  to  settle  on  the  soil.  Young  English 
farmers  who  welcomed  a  wider  field  for  their  energies 
quickly  followed  each  other  to  the  colony.  In  a  little  time 
the  new  districts  opened  up  by  Oxley,  Hume  and  their 
fellow-pioneers,  were  dotted  with  farms ;  and  small  com- 
munities formed  that  were  destined  to  be  the  nuclei  of 
thriving  townships.  A  brighter  future  for  New  South 
Wales  seemed  to  be  dawning. 

The  several  features  of  Commissioner  Bigge's  report  do  not 
need  to  be  particularised  here.  They  dealt  largely  with 
constitutional  matters,  with  the  judicial  and  ecclesiastical 
establishments,  and  with  trade  and  agriculture.  Things 
had  come  to  a  pretty  pass,  what  with  mismanagement  and 
the  bitter  quarrelling  between  opposing  factions.  It  was 
high  time  that  the  tangle  was  straightened  out.  The  primary 
reason  for  the  Commissioner's  inquiry  was  the  question  of 
penal  discipline,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  even  at 
this  stage  the  English  Government  was  contemplating 
discontinuing  transportation  to  the  colony  as  a  matter  of 
expediency.  Touching  this  point  Mr.  Bigge  was  of  opinion 
that  the  system  might  be  continued,  but  subject  to  certain 
modifications.  The  emancipist  class  was  not  to  be  encour- 
aged to  the  degree  favoured  by  the  late  Governor,  while  by 
means  of  a  reformed  judicature  the  rights  of  all  classes  were 
to  be  safeguarded. 

The  new  Governor  who  was  selected  to  supervise  this  new 
order  of  things  was  Sir  Thomas  Brisbane.  He  arrived  in  the 
colony  in  the  autumn  of  1821.  Much  was  done  in  the 
direction  of  progress,  but  unfortunately  for  Sir  Thomas, 
during  the  four  years  of  his  rule  he  was  mostly  embroiled 
with  the  newspaper  press,  which  warmly  espoused  the  cause 

—  18  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

of  the  emancipists,  and  which  undoubtedly  did  some  harm 
in  influencing  the  ill-balanced  minds  of  the  convict  popula- 
tion. At  this  period  a  new  evil  to  be  combated  arose  from 
the  wider  distribution  of  the  prisoners  assigned  to  settlers. 
This  system  certainly  obviated  the  employment  of  large 
gangs  of  convicts  in  or  near  the  towns,  but  despite  this 
fact,  and  the  care  exercised  in  the  allotment  of  these 
bond-servants,  the  worse  elements  could  not  be  eliminated. 
In  too  many  instances  desperate  characters  found  oppor- 
tunity to  escape  from  servitude  (sometimes,  it  must  be 
admitted,  with  reason,  for  not  all  the  settlers  were  easy 
taskmasters),  and  drifted  naturally  into  a  career  of  bush- 
ranging.  This  new  phase  of  crime  called  for  special  measures 
of  repression  ;  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  colony 
we  read  of  a  mounted  police  force  being  constituted.  The 
members  of  this  body  were  drawn  from  the  regiments  then 
in  New  South  Wales,  for  the  time  was  not  yet  come  when 
the  military  were  to  be  superseded  by  a  civil  force. 

During  the  governorship  of  Sir  Ralph  Darling,  Brisbane's 
successor,  the  colony  passed  through  another  crisis.  A 
protracted  period  of  drought  spread  ruin  far  and  wide  among 
the  settlers.  As  grass  and  water  failed  so  the  cattle  and 
sheep  died,  and  once  again  the  question  of  food  supplies 
assumed  a  serious  aspect.  In  all  this  depression  one  marked 
result  was  an  increase  in  crime.  A  district  that  particularly 
suffered  was  that  of  Emu  Plains,  through  which  passed  the 
Western  Road  that  linked  Sydney  with  Bathurst.  Here 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  tableland  of  the  Blue  Mountains,  were 
numerous  hiding-places  wherein  the  bushrangers  might  find 
refuge  after  their  raids,  and  the  newspapers  of  that  date 
bear  ample  witness  to  the  difficulties  entailed  by  pursuit. 
Within  a  few  miles'  radius  of  Sydney,  too,  many  atrocities 

—  19  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

were  perpetrated.  We  read  that  the  chief  constable  of 
Parramatta  received  much  commendation  from  the  Gover- 
nor for  his  capture  of  one  Dalton,  a  noted  desperado  who 
belonged  to  a  gang  which  terrorised  the  neighbourhood. 
In  this  affair  one  of  the  bushrangers  was  shot  dead,  a  tragic 
fate  which  the  Governor  was  sanguine  enough  to  hope  would 
deter  others  from  following  his  example. 

The  distribution  of  police  troops,  as  announced  in  a 
General  Order  of  March  1826,  provided  for  two  principal 
districts.  Of  these  the  headquarters  were  Parramatta  and 
Bathurst,  with  a  field  officer  in  command  at  each.  The 
former  district  embraced  Windsor,  Emu  Plains,  Liverpool 
and  Campbell  Town  :  the  latter  Wellington  Valley  and 
Molong  Plains,  to  the  north  of  Bathurst,  with  detachments 
posted  in  the  south  and  east  "  at  Cox's  River,  Weatherboard 
Hut  and  Springwood."  In  this  same  memorandum  the 
Governor  recommends  officers  to  attach  some  of  the  most 
intelligent  of  the  natives  to  their  parties,  "  as  these  People 
may  be  made  extremely  useful,  if  properly  employed,  in 
tracing  the  Bushrangers  and  discovering  their  Haunts.  It 
will  be  left  to  the  Discretion  of  the  Officers  to  Reward  the 
Natives  according  to  their  exertions  ;  for  which  purposes 
some  slop  Clothing  will  be  put  at  their  Disposal,  and  they 
will  be  at  Liberty  from  Time  to  Time  to  furnish  them  with 
such  Provisions  as  they  may  require  when  employed." 

A  remarkable  instance  in  which  black  trackers  assisted 
the  police  at  this  early  date  has  been  put  on  record.  It  is 
connected  with  the  murder  of  an  emancipist  named  Fisher, 
living  at  Campbell  Town.  This  man  was  partner  with 
another  ex-convict,  Worrell,  and  one  day  mysteriously  dis- 
appeared. It  was  given  out  that  he  had  taken  ship  to  Eng- 
land, and  meanwhile  Worrell  took  possession  of  his  mate's 

—  20  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

property.  Nothing  more  was  thought  about  the  matter 
until  a  story  was  circulated  that  "  Fisher's  ghost  "  had  been 
seen  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  old  home.  One,  Farley, 
had  seen  the  dead  man  sitting  on  a  fence  at  the  corner  of  a 
paddock.  The  story  gained  credence  among  the  more 
ignorant  and  superstitious  ones,  so  that  at  last  investigation 
was  demanded.  A  police  trooper,  with  two  natives,  began 
a  close  search  for  traces  of  the  missing  man.  Nothing  came 
to  light,  however,  until  one  of  the  trackers  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  a  pool  of  water  in  the  vicinity.  "  Here,"  said  the 
trooper,  in  giving  evidence  afterwards,  "  Gilbert  took  a 
corn-stalk  which  he  passed  over  the  surface  of  the  water, 
and  put  it  to  his  nose  and  said  he  '  smelt  the  fat  of  a  white 
man.' '  The  black  next  turned  into  a  small  creek  leading 
out  of  the  pool,  eventually  coming  to  a  stop  at  a  place  on  its 
bank.  "  There's  something  here,"  he  said.  And  when  they 
dug,  the  body  of  the  murdered  man  was  found.  It  may 
be  added  that  Worrell  was  accused  and  convicted  of  the 
crime,  and  that  prior  to  his  execution  he  confessed  having 
committed  the  deed.1 

The  story  of  bushranging  in  the  early  days  of  New  South 
Wales  will  be  told  in  a  later  chapter.  In  this  summary  of 
events  relative  to  the  organisation  of  a  civil  police  force  the 
subject  need  but  be  touched  upon.  It  was  an  agitating  factor 
from  the  first,  as  we  have  seen,  and  through  the  adminis- 
trations of  Sir  Ralph  Darling  and  the  succeeding  Governor, 

1  Mr.  G.  W.  Rusden,  who  gives  the  facts  of  this  case  in  his  History  of 
Australia,  adds  an  interesting  note  in  regard  to  the  apparition,  to  which  no 
reference  was  allowed  to  be  made  at  the  trial.  He  says — 

"  The  Campbell  Town  ghost  story,  like  all  others,  was  garbled  in  narra- 
tion. I  have  corrected  current  rumours  by  comparison  with  the  words  of  a 
trustworthy  informant,  a  medical  man,  who  lived  long  in  the  neighbour- 
hood and  attended  Farley  on  his  death-bed.  He  often  conversed  with 
Farley  on  the  subject  of  the  vision  which  scared  him." 

—  21  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Sir  Richard  Bourke,  it  fully  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
authorities.  Many  noted  criminals  were  shot  down  when 
caught  red-handed,  or  were  captured  and  publicly  executed, 
but  then:  fates  did  not  prevent  others  taking  to  the  life  of  the 
bush.  The  risk  was  great,  but  the  booty  to  be  snatched  by 
force  of  arms  was  often  large,  and,  moreover,  Sydney  was 
full  of  "  receivers,"  who  offered  a  ready  means  of  disposing 
of  stolen  property.  By  1830  the  conditions  of  the  time  were 
such  as  to  call  for  a  special  protective  measure  in  the  shape 
of  a  "  Bushrangers  Act,"  in  which  the  enlarged  powers  of 
magistrates  were  clearly  defined. 

But  before  proceeding  further  in  the  historical  record 
of  New  South  Wales  it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  other 
penal  settlement  of  Tasmania,  or,  as  it  was  earlier  known, 
Van  Diemen's  Land.  The  occupation  of  the  island  began 
in  1803,  when  Governor  King  despatched  parties  to  take 
possession  of  the  north  and  south  ends.  One  object  of  this 
move  was  to  forestall  any  similar  action  on  the  part  of  the 
French  ;  the  second,  and  equally  vital,  object  was  to  ascer- 
tain the  island's  suitability  as  a  convict  station.  Tasmania 
has  been,  perhaps,  the  worst  treated  of  the  Australian  states 
in  this  respect.  Having  been  approved  as  a  future  penal 
settlement,  it  was  immediately  burdened  with  the  very 
worst  types  of  the  criminals  deported  from  England.  The 
irreclaimables,  the  recidivistes,  such  as  France  shipped  out 
to  New  Caledonia,  were  the  special  inmates  of  this  new 
prison-house.  And  as  the  character  of  the  mainland 
altered  with  the  influx  of  free  immigrants,  Tasmania 
became  more  and  more  of  a  gaol. 

In  these  conditions  the  lot  of  the  island's  lieutenant- 
governors  was  never  a  happy  one.  At  the  first  discipline 
was  necessarily  lax,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  provisions  and 

—  22  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

the  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  convicts  themselves  to  hunt 
for  food.  Those  were  the  days  when  Lemon,  Michael  Howe, 
and  their  no  less  brutal  associates  robbed  and  murdered  at 
will.  To  such  a  pitch,  indeed,  did  lawlessness  attain  that  hi 
1814  it  was  found  imperative  to  place  the  whole  of  the  little 
colony  under  martial  law,  and  to  proclaim  that  any  one — 
whether  bond  or  free — who  left  his  house  at  night  would  be 
flogged.  A  slight  improvement  was  to  be  noted  hi  Governor 
Macquarie's  time,  when  more  free  settlers  were  induced  to 
take  up  land,  but  for  a  long  period  the  raids  of  escaped 
prisoners  made  existence  in  Van  Diemen's  Land  precarious, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  procured  for  the  island  an  unen- 
viable notoriety.  At  last  Lieutenant-Governor  Arthur,  in 
1826,  made  a  strong  effort  to  cope  with  the  evil,  and  by  his 
stern  measures  a  good  deal  of  the  bushranging  was  stamped 
out.  One  step  taken  towards  this  desirable  result  was  the 
removal  of  the  principal  convict  settlement  at  Macquarie 
Harbour,  on  the  western  side,  to  a  point  near  Hobart.  At 
this  latter  place,  Port  Arthur,  escape  from  surveillance  was 
rendered  more  difficult,  and  the  soldier-warders  were  able  to 
deal  more  effectively  with  such  outbreaks  as  did  occur. 

It  was  from  Van  Diemen's  Land  that  the  original  settle- 
ment of  Port  Phillip,  and  what  is  now  the  flourishing  city 
of  Melbourne,  had  its  origin.  This  leads  us  to  consider  for 
a  moment  the  progress  of  exploration  at  this  stage  of  affairs. 
Surveyor-General  Oxley,  as  we  have  seen,  had  done  good 
work  in  1817  in  opening  up  the  western  interior.  He  was 
to  do  yet  more.  A  few  years  later,  in  company  with  Lieu- 
tenant Stirling,  he  pushed  along  the  coast  to  the  north  and 
discovered  the  Brisbane  river,  which  empties  itself  into 
Moreton  Bay.  A  tiny  settlement  sprang  up  round  the 
river's  mouth,  for  the  land  proved  attractive  to  farmers,  and 

—  23  — 


THE  ;TROOPER  POLICE 

in  this  way  was  laid  the  foundation  for  the  future  colony  of 
Queensland. 

Among  the  intrepid  explorers  of  these  early  days  who 
heard  and  answered  the  "  everlasting  whisper  " — 

"  Something  hidden.      Go  and  find  it.     Go  and  look  behind  the 

Ranges — 
Something  lost  behind   the  Ranges.      Lost  and  waiting  for  you. 

Go!" 

were  Allan  Cunningham,  Charles  Sturt  and  Thomas  Mitchell. 
The  first  of  these  was  a  protege  of  Sir  Joseph  Banks  and  a 
botanist  of  no  small  repute.  He  had  had  experience  of 
Australian  pioneer  work  under  Oxley,  whom  he  accompanied 
on  the  expedition  up  the  Lachlan  in  1817.  In  1822  Cunning- 
ham undertook  a  journey  over  the  Blue  Mountains  into  the 
•Bathurst  district,  and  in  the  following  year  sought  to  find 
a  practicable  pass  across  the  Liverpool  Range  to  the 
Liverpool  Plains.  This  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  an  easy 
route,  named  by  him  Pandora's  Pass.  Afterwards  he  spent 
some  time  surveying  the  river  Brisbane  to  the  head  of  the 
boat  navigation. 

Cunningham's  explorations  were  continued  year  by 
year,  and  added  much  to  our  knowledge  of  the  interior.  In 
1827  a  notable  journey  brought  about  the  discovery  of  the 
Darling  Downs,  a  fine  pasturage.  This  was  the  crown  of  his 
achievements.  He  next  proceeded  to  open  up  a  road  into 
this  district  from  Moreton  Bay,  but  in  the  few  years  before 
his  death,  in  1839,  he  was  occupied  mainly  in  botanical 
work  in  the  colony. 

Captain  Charles  Sturt  holds  a  high  place  in  the  annals 
of  Australian  exploration.  He  went  out  to  New  South 
Wales  with  his  regiment,  the  39th  Foot,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  the  mystery  of  the  interior  captivated  his  imagina- 

—  24  — 


THE    OLD    AND    THE    NEW. 

r.  Original  police  station  near  Cooper's  Creek,  Northern  Territory.     2.  Modern  type  ;of  station  at 

Kapunda,  S.A. 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

tion .  The  theory  that  there  was  a  central  sea  or  lake  some- 
where at  the  back  of  the  mountains  was  being  hotly  disputed. 
Sturt  inclined  to  this  belief,  and  to  solve  the  question  led  an 
expedition  down  the  Macquarie.  As  had  been  Oxley's 
experience,  he  now  found  himself  baffled  by  the  marshes  hi 
which  the  river  appeared  to  lose  itself,  but  farther  on,  to 
the  north-west,  he  found  a  nobler  river  which  he  named  the 
Darling.  This  large  stream,  the  water  of  which  to  his  dis- 
appointment proved  to  be  too  salt  for  drinking,  was  explored 
for  some  length,  and  then  the  party  returned  to  Sydney. 
The  question  of  the  Darling's  outflow  was  now  all-important. 
Such  a  big  river  must  be  the  main  dram  of  a  very  extensive 
tract  of  country.  To  determine  whether  it  ran  south  or 
west  was  Sturt's  next  concern.  In  the  following  year  (1829) 
he  attacked  the  problem  by  descending  the  Murrumbidgee 
and  thence  launching  himself  upon  the  Murray.  After  an 
exciting  voyage  and  encountering  many  privations,  the 
explorer  discovered  the  junction  of  the  river  with  the  Darling. 
He  then  followed  the  Murray  to  its  termination  in  Lake 
Alexandrina  and  saw  that  he  had  reached  the  coast  at 
Encounter  Bay. 

Sturt's  last  and  greatest  journey  was  undertaken  in  1844. 
This  time  he  plunged  right  into  the  interior  of  South  Aus- 
tralia, but  it  was  only  to  find  that  the  country  was  one  large 
arid  desert.  The  explorer's  journal  records  the  terrible 
difficulties  and  hardships  of  the  expedition,  which  are  almost 
without  parallel.  However,  Cooper's  Creek,  with  its  wide 
sheets  of  water,  was  at  last  discovered,  after  which  the 
return  journey  to  Adelaide  was  made. 

To  Thomas  Mitchell,  Surveyor-General  under  Governor 
Bourke,  fell  the  duty  of  mapping  out  Eastern  Australia. 
His  first  journey  was  made  hi  1831,  hi  the  northern  districts. 

—  25  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

From  then  on,  until  1836,  he  was  busy  in  exploring  the  coun- 
try between  the  Darling  and  the  Darling  Downs,  following 
the  river  for  a  greater  length  than  any  previous  traveller 
and  passing  through  much  new  land  of  favourable  nature. 
So  impressed,  indeed,  was  he  with  the  beauty  of  that  region 
that  he  christened  it  Australia  Felix.  Mitchell,  who  was 
knighted  for  his  work,  later  made  important  expeditions 
into  the  northern  tropical  districts,  discovering  the  Fitzroy 
Downs,  and  several  large  rivers. 

At  the  same  time  that  these  explorers  were  engaged  in 
filling  in  the  map  of  the  continent  another  famous  pioneer  was 
at  work  in  the  south.  Hamilton  Hume,  to  whom  reference 
has  been  already  made,  directed  his  attention  in  1824  to  an 
overland  route  from  Sydney  to  Port  Phillip.  In  this  famous 
journey  he  was  accompanied  by  W.  H.  Hovell,  an  old  sea- 
captain,  and  a  party  of  assigned  convicts.  The  expedition 
was  in  the  main  successful,  although  it  failed  to  reach  the 
head  of  the  harbour.  The  explorers,  partly  baffled  by  the 
thick  scrub  of  the  mountain  range,  were  turned  to  the  inlet 
whereon  the  present  town  of  Geelong  stands.  But  in  the 
course  of  their  travels  they  discovered  and  named  four  rivers 
including  the  Hume  (afterwards  re-named  the  Murray),  the 
Ovens  and  the  Hovell,  or  Goulburn. 

The  outcome  of  all  this  exploration  was  a  wider  sphere 
of  settlement.  Wherever  new  fertile  land  was  opened  up,  or 
rich  pasturage  grounds,  thither  colonists  hastened,  so  that 
every  year  that  went  by  saw  the  bounds  of  New  South  Wales 
stretching  farther  and  farther  afield.  One  such  settlement, 
which  had  most  important  results,  was  that  which  had  its 
origin  in  Tasmania  and  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 
In  1827  John  Batman,  a  free  settler  in  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
felt  dissatisfied  with  the  conditions  in  which  he  was  living. 

—  26  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

The  island  was  first  and  foremost  a  gaol,  with  the  most  un- 
desirable of  criminals  within  its  walls,  and,  moreover,  news 
was  to  hand  of  a  very  fertile  and  attractive  land  the  other 
side  of  Bass  Straits.  Three  brothers  named  Henty,  resi- 
dents of  Launceston,  had  been  adventurous  enough  to  start 
a  little  colony  at  Portland,  about  150  miles  west  of  Port 
Phillip,  and  were  doing  very  well  indeed.  Batman  saw  no 
reason  why  he  should  not  follow  their  example. 
1  Early  in  1835  he  formed  a  small  association,  comprising 
himself  and  ten  companions,  with  a  view  to  colonising  Port 
Phillip  and  engaging  in  stock  breeding.  In  May  of  that 
year  he  made  a  preliminary  trip  to  the  mainland  and  in  an 
interview  with  the  aborigines  entered  into  a  treaty  with 
them  by  which  he  purchased  "  two  large  tracts  of  land — about 
600,000  acres,  more  or  less."  By  this  compact  1  Batman 
and  his  company  became  possessed  of  all  the  western  side  of 
Port  Phillip  Bay  and  a  large  portion  to  the  north  and  north- 
east. Shortly  before  returning  home  he  had  the  curiosity 
to  explore  the  Yarra  River,  and  was  highly  pleased  with  what 
he  saw.  "  The  boat,"  he  writes,  "  went  up  the  large  river, 
which  comes  from  the  east,  and  I  am  glad  to  state  about  six 
miles  up  found  the  river  all  good  water  and  very  deep.  This 
will  be  the  place  for  a  village." 

Batman's  discovery  had  results  of  immediate  importance. 
While  he  was  back  in  Van  Diemen's  Land  endeavouring  to 
secure  a  formal  grant  of  the  land  from  the  Government, 
another  Launceston  townsman,  John  Pascoe  Fawkner,  found 
his  way  to  Port  Phillip  and  the  site  of  Batman's  projected 
"  village."  He  promptly  settled  himself  on  the  spot,  so  that 
on  Batman's  second  trip  thither  the  latter  found  he  was 

1  As  an  interesting  example  of  early  transactions  with  natives  this  docu- 
ment is  given  in  full  in  Appendix  B. 

—  27  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

forestalled.  A  quarrel  between  the  two  parties  ensued. 
Government  interference  was  then  called  for,  and  as  the 
best  way  out  of  the  difficulty  Governor  Bourke  decided  to 
take  the  land  in  the  name  of  the  Crown  and  dispose  of  it  by 
public  auction.  This  was  accordingly  done,  the  lots  being 
bought  by  such  settlers  as  had  followed  the  original  dis- 
coverers. The  new  township  thus  inaugurated  was  named 
Melbourne,  in  honour  of  the  English  Prime  Minister.  As  his 
claim  had  been  disallowed,  and  the  memorable  treaty  with 
the  natives  ignored,  Batman  was  consoled  by  receiving  a 
valuable  grant  of  land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Geelong. 
And  thus  was  begun  the  colony  which  was  afterwards  to 
grow  into  the  flourishing  State  of  Victoria  and  become  a  for- 
midable rival  to  its  older  sister,  New  South  Wales. 

While  these  momentous  events  were  transpiring  in  eastern 
Australia  the  work  of  colonisation  was  being  carried  on  quietly 
elsewhere  in  the  continent.  In  the  west  the  attention  of  the 
home  Government  had  been  directed  to  the  need  for  occupa- 
tion by  reason  of  French  activity  in  the  Pacific.  To  frus- 
trate any  rival  attempt  at  settlement  Governor  Darling  of 
New  South  Wales — acting  under  instructions  from  the  Earl 
of  Bathurst,  Colonial  Secretary — sent  a  party  to  hoist  the 
British  flag  at  King  George's  Sound.  This  first  contingent 
was  composed  of  soldiers  and  convicts  to  the  number  of 
eighty,  under  the  command  of  Major  Lockyer,  but  the  ex- 
periment only  lasted  five  years.  Before  the  convict  station 
was  abandoned,  however,  Governor  Darling  despatched 
a  little  expedition  to  investigate  and  report  upon  the  coast 
beyond  the  Leeuwin.  Captain  Stirling,  of  H.M.  frigate 
Success,  who  was  selected  for  this  duty,  reached  the  mouth 
of  the  Swan  River  early  in  1827,  and  decided  that  the  locality 
was  a  favourable  one  for  settlement.  So  glowing  was  his 

—  28  — 


?  ;  i 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

account  of  this  part  of  the  coast  that  the  Governor  sent  him 
back  to  England  to  awaken  interest  in  this  new  Australian 
discovery. 

Stirling  succeeded  in  his  task,  He  was  entrusted  with 
the  work  of  organising  a  colony  and  received  his  appointment 
as  the  first  lieutenant-governor.  In  due  course  Captain 
Fremantle,  in  H.M.S.  Challenger,  proceeded  to  the  Swan 
River  and  took  possession  of  "  all  that  part  of  New  Holland 
which  is  not  included  within  the  territory  of  New  South 
Wales,"  in  the  Bang's  name.  Four  weeks  later  Captain  Stirling 
himself  arrived,  with  a  company  of  settlers  and  their 
families,  eight  hundred  strong,  in  the  transport  Parmelia. 
This  was  in  June  1829.  On  the  18th  of  that  month  the 
colony  of  Western  Australia  was  proclaimed. 

The  settlements  which  quickly  sprang  up  around  the  new 
townships  of  Perth  and  Fremantle  were  of  the  nature  of  an 
experiment,  and  their  progress  was  watched  with  the  keenest 
interest.  Grants  of  land  were  made  to  immigrants  who 
came  out  from  England  to  grow  tobacco  and  cotton,  sugar 
or  flax,  to  breed  cattle  and  horses,  and  develop  the  country  in 
whatever  way  possible.  Every  one  was  to  be  a  landed  pro- 
prietor under  the  scheme  :  "  For  every  £3  worth  of  goods 
introduced  into  the  colony,  forty  acres  were  given,  but  the 
fee  simple  was  not  to  be  had  by  the  grantee  until  Is.  Qd.  per 
acre  had  been  expended  on  its  improvement."  It  was  a 
Utopian  scheme,  in  fact,  and  like  others  of  its  kind  it  con- 
tained many  defects.  Once  the  land  near  Perth  had  been 
snapped  up,  intending  settlers  were  compelled  to  take  up 
blocks  of  unknown  country  far  afield,  to  locate  themselves 
in  the  scrub,  and  this  with  little  or  no  idea  of  the  difficulties 
to  be  faced.  As  a  consequence  there  were  many  disastrous 
failures.  Hostile  blacks  speared  the  whites  at  outlying  sta- 

-  30  — 


SOLDIERS  AND  CONVICTS,    1821-1835 

tions,  crops  failed  through  drought  and  other  causes,  and  a 
starving  time  set  in.  It  was  history  repeating  itself.  But 
just  as  New  South  Wales  had  won  through  despite  adverse 
circumstances,  so  in  time  Western  Australia  took  the  tide  at 
the  flood  and  went  steadily  forward  to  success. 

In  dealing  with  Western  Australia  at  a  later  period  we 
shall  see  that  when  her  fortunes  were  at  a  low  ebb  recourse 
was  had  to  convictism.  Always  a  dangerous  experiment,  as 
the  case  of  New  South  Wales  proved,  it  was  rigidly  excluded 
from  the  programme  when  the  new  colony  of  South 
Australia  was  launched.  In  this  project  Mr.  Edward  Gibbon 
Wakefield,  a  distinguished  political  economist,  was  the 
leading  spirit.  In  1829  he  showed  himself  a  keen  and  bitter 
critic  of  the  policy  followed  in  New  South  Wales,  and  promul- 
gated his  scheme  for  an  ideal  Australian  colony.  Briefly 
stated,  his  system  of  colonisation  was  based  on  two  principles : 
the  sale  of  land  at  a  reasonable  price,  hi  lieu  of  free,  or 
almost  free  grants,  and  the  introduction  of  labour  from 
England,  to  be  paid  for  by  the  money  thus  acquired.  It  was 
to  be  a  combination  of  capital  and  labour.  Immigrants  with 
means  were  to  be  induced  to  settle  on  the  land,  and  such 
land  as  was  parcelled  out  was  to  be  carefully  selected. 
The  indiscriminate  allotment  of  grants  that  had  character- 
ised the  early  administration  in  Western  Australia  conveyed 
its  own  lesson. 

In  1834  was  formed  "  The  South  Australian  Association," 
confirmed  by  a  special  Act  of  Parliament.  By  this  Act  the 
limits  of  the  colony  were  defined,  the  whole  comprising  over 
300,000  square  miles,  while  a  body  of  Commissioners  was  ap- 
pointed to  carry  out  the  scheme  of  emigration  and  settlement 
and  watch  over  the  welfare  of  the  colonists.  The  price  of 
land  was  fixed  at  12s.  an  acre,  with  an  understanding  that 

._  O  T       - 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

this  should  be  increased  in  due  time  to  £1  an  acre.  Intend- 
ing emigrants  were  offered  the  choice  of  purchase  on  these 
terms  or  of  lease  for  a  period  of  three  years.  As  a  special 
feature  of  the  system  was  the  encouragement  of  family  emi- 
gration, the  Act  expressly  stipulated  that  "  No  person  hav- 
ing a  husband  or  wife,  or  a  child  or  children,  shall,  by  means 
of  the  emigration  fund,  obtain  a  passage  to  the  Colony,  un- 
less the  husband  or  wife,  or  the  child  or  children,  of  such  poor 
person  shall  be  conveyed  thither."  Another  noteworthy 
clause  provided :  "  That  no  person  or  persons  convicted  in 
any  Court  of  Justice  in  Great  Britain  or  Ireland,  or  elsewhere, 
shall  at  any  time,  or  under  any  circumstances,  be  transpoited 
as  a  convict  to  any  place  within  the  limits  hereinbefore 
described." 

So  far  so  good.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  new  colony 
started  under  the  most  favourable  auspices.  But  Wakefield 
and  most  of  his  supporters  at  home  were  entirely  ignorant 
of  the  nature  of  the  country  they  proposed  to  populate,  and 
were  too  ready  to  take  for  granted  the  fact  that  work 
would  be  found  for  all.  The  story  of  South  Australia's  early 
years  is  one  of  misunderstandings,  overbearing  and  fatuous 
policy,  extravagance  with  public  money,  and  dissensions  be- 
tween the  Governor  and  settlers.  It  was  not  until  Captain 
(afterwards  Sir)  George  Grey  assumed  the  reins  of  office  and 
developed  the  colony  on  business-like  lines,  that  a  lamentable 
failure  was  averted  and  a  prosperous  future  ensured. 

But  the  history  of  Australia's  welding  into  a  nation 
cannot  be  told  in  these  pages.  Enough  has  perhaps  been 
said  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  conditions  of  the 
island-continent  in  the  first  years  of  her  making,  and  from 
this  point  the  record  of  mounted  police  work  may  be  fitly 
taken  up. 

_  32  — 


-eib 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   FIRST  POLICE 

Formation  and  equipment — Donohue  the  bushranger — End  of  a  notorious 
gang — Police  Magistrates  appointed  in  Sydney — Police  and  gaol 
charges — The  Act  of  1838 — Increase  of  the  force — A  smart  capture 
— The  penalty  of  carelessness — Transportation  to  New  South  Wales 
abolished — Patrols  on  the  main  roads — Uniforms  and  arms — Captain 
Zouch — "  Scotchey  " — Captain  Battye  and  the  Western  Patrol — 
"  Sticking  up  "  amail  coach — Capture  of  Day  and  Wilson — Locating 
the  "  plant  " — Trouble  on  the  Goldfields — The  affair  at  Lambing 
Flat — Police  charge  the  mob — The  lesson  of  the  riot. 

THE  first  body  of  mounted  police  formed  in  Australia, 
that  is,  in  New  South  Wales,  was  called  into  being 
by  Governor  Brisbane  in  1825.  As  has  been  already  noted, 
the  members  of  this  force  were  recruited  mainly  from  the 
infantry  regiments  serving  in  the  colony,  so  that  it  began 
with  a  distinctly  military  character.  To  further  emphasise 
this  the  uniform  worn  was  very  much  like  that  of  the  14th 
Light  Dragoons,  consisting  of  a  shell  jacket  with  white 
facings,  blue  pants  with  white  stripe,  and  a  cap  without  a 
peak.  This  was  for  full  dress  order.  When  accoutred  in 
bush  uniform  the  men  wore  a  patrol  jacket  and  trousers,  and 
a  cabbage-tree,  or  Leghorn,  hat.  The  arms  used  were  sabre, 
carbine  and  horse  pistols. 

At  first  this  force  was  of  very  low  strength.  Two 
officers  and  thirteen  troopers  is  the  total  given.  With  this 
small  complement  it  entered  upon  its  duties  forthwith,  for 
several  bushrangers  of  more  or  less  notoriety  were  terrorising 

—  33  —  D 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  settlers.  Donohue  was  then  working  the  Sydney  dis- 
trict. This  man  is  described  as  being  a  particularly  bad 
specimen  of  the  escaped  convict.  Of  middle  height,  he  was 
powerfully  built  and  possessed  a  violent  temper,  while  he 
was  daring  to  the  point  of  bravado.  With  him  were  associ- 
ated three  other  men,  all  of  them  convicts,  but  of  these 
only  two  call  for  mention,  Walmsley  and  Webber. 

"  During  four  years,"  says  Mr.  White,  hi  his  History  of 
Bushranging,  "  the  country  rang  with  reports  of  their  des- 
perate deeds,  to  narrate  which  hi  detail  would  fill  a  volume. 
Cases  of  '  sticking  up  '  on  the  road  or  hi  houses  were  of  daily 
occurrence.  Settlers  and  others  were  robbed,  completely 
stripped,  and  left  in  the  bush  to  make  their  way  home  as  best 
they  could.  Nor  did  the  ladies  even  escape,  for  there  were 
several  instances  in  which  it  was  related  that  the  robbers  had 
taken  the  earrings  from  then*  ears,  and  the  rings  from  their 
fingers — these  outrages  being  committed  close  to  Sydney. 

"  A  Mr.  Eaton  was  proceeding  from  Sydney  towards 
Liverpool  on  horseback  when  Donohue  or  one  of  his  gang 
fired  at  him  from  the  side  of  the  road  and  severely  wounded 
him.  After  he  had  fallen  two  members  of  the  gang  robbed 
him  of  his  money  and  valuables  and  a  portion  of  his  clothing, 
and  then  decamped,  leaving  him  bleeding  in  the  road. 
Before  nightfall,  however,  some  settlers  on  their  way  to  town 
picked  up  Mr.  Eaton  and  carried  him  home. 

"  Next  day  a  young  man  who  had  gone  up  to  inspect  some 
cattle  at  Liverpool  was  deliberately  shot  in  the  neck  and 
chest  when  on  the  road,  and  as  Donohue  and  Underwood 
(another  of  his  companions)  were  then  in  the  neighbourhood 
they  received  credit  for  the  outrage.  No  attempt  was  made 
to  rob  the  victim,  who  was  left  lying  on  the  road." 

The  Australian  and  other  newspapers  of  the  day  were  loud 
—  34  — 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

in  their  demands  that  this  bushranging  gang  should  be  exter- 
minated, and  that  the  roads  between  Parramatta  and  Liver- 
pool should  be  well  patrolled.  The  police  were  too  few  in 
number  and  too  scattered  to  do  much  good  by  themselves. 
All  attempts  to  catch  the  desperadoes  were  futile  until  a 
body  of  influential  citizens  took  the  matter  in  hand.  Then 
one  day  the  attacking  force,  strengthened  by  a  number  of 
mounted  troopers,  surprised  Donohue  in  his  retreat  in  the 
bush,  and  a  desperate  fight  took  place.  In  the  end  Donohue 
was  shot.  Later  on  his  chief  associates,  Walmsley  and 
Webber,  were  captured,  the  latter  being  hanged,  while  the 
former  was  sent  to  the  gaol  in  Van  Diemen's  Land. 

It  was  in  1833,  when  Mr.  R.  Waddy  was  in  command  of 
the  mounted  police  of  the  colony,  that  an  important  step 
was  taken  towards  superseding  military  rule  by  civil  tri- 
bunals. In  that  year  Governor  Bourke  passed  a  law  (4 
William  IV,  No.  7,)  which  provided  for  the  appointment  of 
two  or  more  Police  Magistrates  for  "  the  Town  and  Port  of 
Sydney,"  these  officials  being  empowered  to  enrol  a  certain 
number  of  suitable  men  for  a  Police  Force  for  the  said  town 
and  port,  in  order  to  check  robberies  and  capture  felons. 
Governor  Brisbane's  Mounted  Police  force  had  been  under 
military  jurisdiction,  as  it  had  been  military  in  its  establish- 
ment. Henceforward  the  police  were  to  be  more  under 
civil  control,  and  persons  arrested  by  them  were  to  be  tried 
by  the  magistrates. 

At  this  juncture,  too,  the  annual  charge  for  police  and 
gaols  underwent  supervision.  The  Patriotic  Association,  of 
which  William  Charles  Wentworth  l  was  the  spokesman  and 
which  aimed  at  many  reforms  in  the  constitution,  severely 

1  Known  as  "  the  Australian  Patriot " ;  the  same  Wentworth  who 
with  Blaxland  and  Lawson  first  crossed  the  Blue  Mountains. 

—  35  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

criticised  the  financial  side  of  the  Government.  One  point 
strongly  urged  was  that  Great  Britain  should  bear  the  greater 
share  of  the  expense  incurred  by  the  convicts,  but  the  de- 
mand passed  unheeded.  Before  1834  police  and  gaol  charges 
had  been  paid  out  of  the  military  chest ;  in  that  year  the 
British  Secretary  of  State  transferred  the  burden  to  the 
colonial  revenues.  This  special  form  of  taxation  became  a 
burning  question  with  Wentworth  and  his  followers,  and  they 
gave  it  no  rest  for  several  years. 

In  August  of  1838,  when  Governor  Sir  George  Gipps  had 
succeeded  Bourke,  another  Act  was  passed  (the  Border  Police 
Act,  2  Victoria,  No.  2,)  which  was  designed  to  regulate  the 
police  hi  the  towns  of  Parramatta,  Windsor,  Maitland,  Bath- 
urst,  and  other  places  in  the  colony,  where  Police  Magistrates 
had  been  appointed  with  power  to  enrol  constables.  By 
this  time  the  mounted  force  had  increased  to  nine  officers, 
a  sergeant-major,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  men.  All  the  officers  were  magis- 
trates by  virtue  of  their  commission.  As  had  been  the  case 
from  the  beginning,  the  majority  of  the  rank  and  file  were 
ex-soldiers,  the  best  material  that  could  then  be  obtained. 
Good  shots  and  good  riders,  accustomed  to  discipline  and — 
very  often — versed  in  bush-craft,  they  were  the  ideal  men 
to  be  the  representatives  of  law  and  order. 

The  headquarters  of  the  mounted  police  were  at  Sydney, 
the  chief  officer  being  the  commandant.  At  Bathurst 
and  other  points  were  posts  of  varying  strength,  according 
to  the  needs  of  the  district,  and,  what  was  of  utmost  import- 
ance, the  main  roads  were  now  regularly  patrolled  by  small 
parties.  The  reason  for  this  latter  special  duty  is  not  far  to 
seek.  As  the  colony  developed  with  wider  settlement  the 
crime  of  horse  and  cattle  stealing  became  more  prevalent, 

-36- 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

and  the  highways  of  traffic  needed  close  watching  to  keep  a 
check  upon  the  raiders.  Especially  was  this  the  case  on  the 
Great  Western,  Southern  and  Northern  roads,  the  divisional 
headquarters  of  which  were  respectively  Bathurst,  Goul- 
burn  and  Armidale.  Many  were  the  conflicts  between  the 
troopers  and  the  cattle-thieves  there,  and  rarely  did  a 
constable  ride  out  upon  his  mission  without  literally  carrying 
his  life  in  his  hands. 

A  good  story  is  told  of  the  capture  of  some  bushrangers  of 
this  period,  the  gang  having  made  very  free  with  their  neigh- 
bour's property.  The  hero  of  the  incident  was  a  prominent 
member  of  the  mounted  police. 

"  This  gallant  officer,"  says  the  chronicler,1  "  having  to 

the  surprise  of  the  people  and  garrison  of  the  town  of , 

marched  one  day,  as  prisoners  to  the  gaol,  a  body  of  bush- 
rangers three  or  four  times  the  strength  of  his  own  force, 
was  asked  by  his  admiring  comrades  how  he  had  contrived 
this  sweeping  capture  with  such  long  odds  against  him. 
The  readers  of  Joe  Miller  will  recollect  the  Hibernian  soldier 
who  boasted,  according  to  that  veracious  annalist,  that  he 
had  made  prisoners  of  a  whole  section  of  the  enemy,  single- 
handed,  by  surrounding  them.  Mr. not  being  an 

Irishman,  did  no  such  impossible  thing.  Stealing  cautiously 
through  the  bush,  with  his  little  party  of  four  or  five  men,  he 
espied  the  banditti,  in  number  about  sixteen,  busily  cooking 
and  eating  in  a  hollow  some  thirty  yards  below  where 
heTstood — their  arms  piled  a  few  paces  distant.  Leaving 
the  men  above  with  orders  how  to  act,  and  creeping  down 
the  bank,  he  suddenly  jumped  into  the  midst  of  the  robbers 
shouting  out,  '  Yield  in  the  King's  name,  ye  bog-trotting 
villains  !  '  Then,  looking  up  towards  his  party,  '  Send 

1  Colonel  Mundy  in  Our  Antipodes. 

—  37  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

down,'  cried  he,  '  two  file  to  secure  the  arms  :  stand  fast 
the  remainder,  and  shoot  the  first  man  that  moves.'  About 
twenty  stand  of  arms  were  thus  taken  possession  of,  hand- 
cuffs were  applied  as  far  as  they  would  go,  and,  incredible 
as  it  may  appear,  the  disarmed  banditti,  with  their  teeth 
drawn,  were  safely  conducted  by  the  captain  to  a  neigh- 
bouring township." 

Yet  another  story  of  these  early  and  stirring  days 
examples  the  danger  incurred  by  the  police  in  the  execution 
of  their  duty.  It  relates  to  a  convict  bushranger  named 
Cummerford,  a  member  of  a  gang  headed  by  one  Dignum. 
With  his  leader  and  another  man  Cummerford,  quite  a  young 
fellow,  had  murdered  six  of  their  companions  in  order  to  free 
themselves  for  a  life  in  the  bush.  Later  on  Dignum  made  a 
dastardly  attempt  to  kill  Cummerford,  whereupon  the  latter 
betook  himself  to  Melbourne,  surrendered  to  the  authorities 
and  revealed  the  whole  story  of  the  crime.  In  due  course 
the  truth  of  this  was  proved  by  a  search  at  the  spot  indicated 
by  the  informer,  the  remains  of  the  murdered  men  being 
unearthed. 

Cummerford  himself  had  accompanied  the  search  party, 
which  consisted  of  a  sergeant  from  an  infantry  regiment, 
a  private  soldier,  and  two  police-constables.  On  the  way 
back  a  sad  tragedy  occurred.  Two  of  the  warders — the 
soldier  and  a  constable — separated  from  the  others  to  turn 
back  for  some  stores  that  had  been  left  behind  at  the  last 
camping-place.  The  prisoner,  meanwhile,  had  so  favour- 
ably impressed  the  sergeant  by  his  bearing  that  suspicion 
was  disarmed  and  he  was  less  closely  guarded  than  would 
have  been  the  case  otherwise.  Whilst  a  halt  was  made  for 
the  evening  meal  the  handcuffs  were  removed  from  Cummer- 
ford's  wrists,  to  allow  him  freedom  in  eating.  The  sergeant 

-38- 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

and  the  remaining  constable,  a  man  named  Tompkins,  then 
busied  themselves  with  the  fire,  their  weapons  being  placed 
against  a  tree.  In  a  flash  the  bushranger  saw  his  chance 
to  escape,  and  seized  it.  Snatching  at  one  of  the  guns  he 
shot  Tompkins  fatally  and  jumped  on  a  horse.  The  sergeant 
followed  with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  but  neither  he  nor 
the  others  of  the  party,  who  came  up  shortly  after,  could 
obtain  sight  of  the  fugitive.  However,  Cummerford  was 
captured  later,  while  raiding  a  station,  and  was  eventually 
convicted  and  hanged. 

The  records  of  the  thirties  and  forties  contain  numerous 
instances  of  police  bravery,  as  they  do,  unfortunately,  of 
police  recklessness  and  carelessness,  like  the  case  above 
noted.  And  if  newspaper  criticism  was  severe  when  out- 
rages were  committed  with  alarming  frequency,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  small  number  of  constables  had  to 
cover  a  wide  extent  of  country,  the  greater  part  of  which 
was  bush,  and  that  bush  of  a  difficult  kind.  One  can  read 
between  the  lines,  in  examining  these  old  records,  that  the 
troopers  had  quite  as  arduous  a  task  before  them,  as  had  the 
later  members  of  the  force  when  what  is  known  as  the  great 
bushranging  era  set  in.  Statistics  go  to  show  that  in  one 
year,  1840,  crime  had  increased  50  percent,  on  the  previous 
twelve  months'  returns.  This  year  1840,  by  the  way,  is 
memorable  for  the  fact  that  it  saw  transportation  to  New 
South  Wales  abolished.  This  was  effected  by  an  Order  in 
Council,  following  upon  urgent  representations  from  the 
colonists.  Van  Diemen's  Land  and  Norfolk  Island  were 
thereafter  to  be  the  only  convict  settlements  in  Australia. 

As  the  most  practicable  distribution  of  the  police  force 
at  command,  the  troopers  were  dispositioned  on  the  three 
great  roads  of  the  colony.  There  were  thus  three  divisions, 

—  39  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

each  in  charge  of  a  superintendent  who  had  at  his  disposal 
about  fifty  men.  At  Bathurst  was  Captain  Battye,  at 
Goulburn  Captain  Zouch,  and  at  Armidale  Captain  Scott. 
The  headquarters  division  at  Carter's  Barracks  in  Sydney, 
it  may  be  mentioned,  was  commanded  by  Captain  M'Lerie, 
who  acted  as  paymaster  to  all  the  patrols  and  who  after- 
wards became  Inspector-General  of  the  force.  As  a  rule, 
the  troopers  patrolled  the  roads  in  couples,  looking  out  for 
and  examining  suspicious  characters,  and  acting  as  escorts 
to  individuals  or  to  valuable  property. 

What  were  known  as  the  Gold  Police  came  into  force  in 
the  early  fifties,  on  the  discovery  of  the  goldfields,  these 
being  placed  directly  under  the  Gold  Commission  and 
having  for  their  especial  work  the  convoying  of  the  gold- 
trains  from  the  diggings.  But  a  division  of  duty  was  not 
found  to  work  satisfactorily.  There  was  not  an  organised 
system  of  co-operation,  and  in  1859  the  Gold  Police  as  a 
separate  body  disappeared,  to  be  merged  into  the  various 
patrols. 

The  greater  number  of  the  troopers  serving  in  the  patrols 
were  ex-military  men,  and  their  uniform  maintained  the 
military  appearance  of  the  earlier  police  of  1825.  Full 
dress  was  very  similar  to  that  of  the  13th  Light  Dragoons  : 
blue  trousers  with  white  braid  on  sides,  tight-fitting  blue 
shell  jacket  with  red  facings,  white  collar  and  white 
shoulder-straps,  glazed  black  cross-belt  with  cartouche  box 
for  ammunition  for  carbines  and  pistols,  and  cavalry  swords 
with  white  sword-slings.  For  bush  duty  the  sword  was  dis- 
pensed with,  only  the  carbine  and  pistols  being  carried.  A 
peakless  round  pill-box  cap,  with  white  band  and  white 
button  on  top,  fastened  by  a  chin  strap,  and  high  boots  with 
heel  spurs,  completed  the  dress.  For  active  service  the 

—  40  — 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

uniform  consisted  of  blue  cloth  trousers  without  the  stripe, 
and  a  large  double-breasted  blue  jacket  without  facings,  cap 
and  boots  being  the  same  as  before,  except  when  the  popular 
"  cabbage-tree  "  hat  warworn  in  hot  weather,  with  often  the 
addition  of  a  green  veil  as  protection  against  mosquitos. 
The  Gold  Police  of  the  fifties  were  usually  distinguished  by 
light  helmets. 

The  saddle  in  use  at  this  time  was  the  old  military  type, 
with  horns  and  holsters  for  pistols.  The  trooper  carried  on 
it,  behind  him,  a  valise,  and  in  front  his  cloak  folded  into  a 
roll.  While  in  the  bush  he  was  provided  also  with  a  saddle- 
bag containing  an  outfit  for  shoeing  his  mount.  The  horses 
acquired  then  were  bigger  and  stronger  than  those  of  the 
present  day,  no  horse  being  under  17  or  18  hands.  Endu- 
rance on  long  trips  was  a  qualification  of  more  importance 
than  speed. 

In  the  Mounted  Police  Patrols  the  ranks  were  :  trooper, 
corporal,  sergeant,  sergeant-major  and  superintendent. 
Inspectors  and  sub-inspectors  were  appointments  of  a  later 
date. 

It  was  on  the  Great  Western  and  Southern  Roads  that 
the  liveliest  times  were  experienced.  The  latter  highway 
was  patrolled  by  the  troopers  under  Captain  Zouch,  a 
famous  figure  in  police  history.  A  son  of  Colonel  Zouch, 
who  commanded  a  British  regiment  in  the  American  war 
of  1812-14,  Captain  Henry  Zouch  went  from  home  to  Aus- 
tralia with  the  4th  Foot  and  was  stationed  at  Sydney  and 
Newcastle.  In  1834  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  military 
patrol  at  Bathurst,  but  on  his  regiment  leaving  for  India 
some  years  later  he  sold  out  and  settled  down  on  an  estate 
to  breed  horses.  Such  a  capable  man,  however,  was  not 
to  be  overlooked  by  the  authorities,  and  in  1851,  Captain 

—  41  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Zouch  was  appointed  Gold  Commissioner  for  the  Turon 
(now  Hargraves)  district,  and  soon  afterwards  was  made 
Superintendent  of  the  Southern  Patrol. 

Among  the  noted  characters  whom  the  Goulburn  police 
hunted  down  in  the  forties  was  a  convict  absconder  named 
"  Scotchey."  This  ruffian  at  first  frequented  the  Lachlan 
district,  but  later  for  purposes  of  private  revenge,  transferred 
his  attentions  to  the  Southern  Road.  A  special  object  of  his 
hatred  was  an  overseer  named  Fry.  With  three  companions 
"  Scotchey  "  surprised  his  enemy  on  the  latter's  station  and 
a  fierce  duel  took  place,  ending  in  the  bushranger's  death. 
The  mounted  troopers,  arriving  on  the  scene,  took  up  the 
pursuit  and  were  successful  in  capturing  the  rest  of  the  gang. 

The  commander  of  the  Western  Patrol,  Captain  Battye, 
was  equally  noted  as  a  thief -catcher.  His  district,  with 
Bathurst  as  headquarters,  offered  many  temptations  to  the 
gentlemen  of  the  road,  and  some  brisk  encounters  between 
the  police  and  the  bushrangers  frequently  occurred.  Here 
is  the  story  of  one  exploit,  partly  gleaned  from  official  records 
and  partly  from  the  lips  of  one  who  took  part  therein. 

In  the  month  of  June  1859,  the  township  of  Hartley,  near 
Bathurst,  was  thrown  into  commotion  by  the  arrival  of  the 
stage-coach  for  Sydney  with  the  startling  news  that  it  had 
been  "  stuck  up."  The  mail-bags,  containing  several 
thousands  of  pounds  in  cash,  bills  and  other  forms,  had  been 
carried  off  by  the  robber,  one  man  only  having  been  seen 
at  the  time.  Andill,  the  driver  of  the  coach,  stated  that  he 
had  been  compelled  to  surrender  the  bags.  His  two -pas- 
sengers were  walking  up  the  hill  some  distance  ahead,  and  a 
gun  levelled  straight  at  him  was  an  unanswerable  argument. 
All  that  could  be  done  now  was  to  hasten  back  to  the  scene 
of  the  outrage  and  get  upon  the  tracks  of  the  thief. 

—  42  — 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

A  few  of  the  mounted  police  then  in  the  town  at  once 
rode  off  with  Andill  to  the  spot,  but  the  closest  search  failed 
to  reveal  anything.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  bushranger,  an 
ex-convict  named  Day,  had  been  joined  by  a  mate  soon  after 
securing  his  booty,  and  the  two  had  made  off  to  a  favourite 
retreat  in  the  scrub.  There,  while  the  troopers  were  scour- 
ing the  country,  they  were  engaged  in  sorting  out  the  more 
valuable  of  the  letters  and  packets. 

Day,  it  may  be  said,  was  one  of  the  Van  Diemen's  Land 
"  irreclaimables  "  who  had  worked  out  his  sentence  at  Port 
Arthur  and  then  betaken  himself  to  New  South  Wales .  He 
was  known  at  the  Turon  diggings,  whither  he  went  with  the 
crowd  at  the  time  of  the  gold-rush,  and  known  also  at  other 
places  as  a  blacksmith  by  occupation.  Trade  must  have 
been  dull,  or,  like  so  many  other  old  "  lags,"  he  could  not 
resist  the  "  call  of  the  bush,"  for  after  some  years  of  com- 
parative honesty,  he  suddenly  disappeared  to  make  his  debut 
in  a  new  role.  The  chief  object  he  had  in  view,  it  was 
afterwards  learned,  was  the  gold-train  from  the  fields,  which 
had  passed  over  the  same  route  on  the  previous  day.  Owing 
to  the  number  of  armed  police  in  the  escort  Day  and  his 
companion  had  thought  better  of  their  plans  and  allowed 
it  to  go  on  its  way  unmolested. 

The  "  sticking  up  "  of  the  coach  had  been  done  in  broad 
daylight.  Late  the  same  evening  the  police  at  Hartley 
gained  the  first  news  of  the  robbers.  A  messenger  from 
"  Walton's,"  a  well-known  hostelry  on  the  Mudgee  road 
about  a  dozen  miles  distant,  informed  the  chief  constable 
that  his  master  believed  the  man  wanted  was  in  the  house. 
There  were  two  men,  he  went  on  to  add,  and  they  were  under 
lock  and  key  on  suspicion. 

"  You  can  bet  we  were  not  long  in  following  this  up," 
—  43  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

said  the  police  officer  who  related  the  sequel  to  the  writer. 
"  Two  troopers  rode  off  to  Walton's  and  jumped  on  the  men 
in  their  rooms.  What  they  found  there  was  pretty  clear 
evidence — money  in  gold  and  notes,  and  a  letter  presumably 
stolen  from  the  mail.  Our  fellows  brought  the  pair  back  to 
the  station,  where  they  were  safely  locked  up.  In  the 
morning  we  tried  their  boots  hi  the  tracks  on  the  road  and 
found  they  fitted  exactly. 

"  An  hour  or  so  later  Captain  Battye  came  into  town  and 
examined  the  prisoners  himself.  As  it  was  desirable  to  get 
some  or  all  of  the  stolen  property,  he  ordered  a  party  to 
saddle  up,  as  he  meant  to  make  a  search  in  the  bush.  We 
started  out  after  noon,  taking  with  us  the  prisoner  Wilson, 
Day's  accomplice.  This  chap,  we  found,  had  a  grudge 
against  Day,  and  Battye  thought  he  might  be  induced  to 
'  split.'  It  was  worth  trying,  anyhow.  But  Wilson  perhaps 
thought  he  might  get  a  lighter  sentence  than  the  other,  and 
lift  the  stuff  they  had  planted  before  Day  got  out  of  gaol, 
so  he  kept  his  face  shut  and  said  nothing.  The  Captain, 
however,  was  too  old  a  hand  to  be  bluffed. 

"  '  All  right,  my  man,'  he  said,  '  we  can  wait  if  you're 
going  to  play  that  game.  As  it's  getting  dark  we'll  camp  for 
the  night.  I  shall  chain  you  to  a  tree  and  you  can  think  it 
over.' 

"  Wilson  thought  it  over  very  quickly.  It  was  cold  at 
nights,  being  winter,  and  he  didn't  relish  the  prospect. 
Besides  which,  he  saw  that  our  Captain  meant  business. 

"  '  I'll  own  up,'  he  said  ,  '  the  stuff's  a  good  way  off  yet, 
but  I'll  take  you  straight  to  it.' 

"  Having  learned  where  the  '  plant '  was,  we  rode  back 
to  Hartley  for  the  night,  and  left  the  search  for  the  next  day. 
Then,  with  Wilson  leading  the  way,  we  started  off  again  on  a 

—  44  — 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

forty  miles'  trip,  about  fifteen  of  which  we  did  on  foot.  And 
we  found  the  stuff  buried  in  a  gully,  all,  that  is,  that  they 
had  not  destroyed.  In  the  end  Day  received  a  long  sentence 
of  penal  servitude.  Wilson  was  to  have  been  brought  up 
for  trial,  and  would  no  doubt  have  been  let  off  as  he  turned 
Queen's  evidence,  but  he  broke  out  of  prison  and  got  clear 
away.  No  one  ever  saw  him  again  that  I  know  of." 

What  other  scenes  were  enacted  on  the  Western  and 
Southern  Roads  when  Gardiner  and  his  imitators  had  their 
day  will  be  told  in  a  later  chapter.  Before  passing  on  to 
these  more  notorious  bushrangers  it  is  important  to  detail 
the  events  that  led  up  to  a  notable  development  in  police 
history.  Up  to  this  date  there  was  little  co-ordination  in  the 
force.  Each  branch  of  the  police,  the  patrols,  the  escorts, 
guards  and  town  constables,  had  its  own  chief  ;  the  time 
was  approaching  for  a  more  systematic  arrangement.  This 
became  the  more  urgent  when,  on  the  opening  up  of  the 
new  goldfields  in  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria,  some 
alarming  riots  occurred  and  the  resources  of  the  police  were 
taxed  to  their  utmost. 

In  1854  occurred  the  famous  affair  of  the  Eureka  Stock- 
ade, at  Ballarat.1  A  few  years  later  came  the  outbreaks 
at  Jembaicumbene,  near  Braidwood,  and  at  Kiandra.  The 
Southern  Patrol  was  called  upon  to  deal  with  both  these 
latter  disorders,  and  hard  work  did  the  troopers  have  in 
restoring  peace  among  the  miners.  At  Kiandra  the  reserve 
force  from  Carter's  Barracks,  Sydney,  under  Captain  M'Lerie, 
was  summoned  to  assist,  so  determined  was  the  attitude 
of  the  rioters. 

But  Lambing  Flat,  in  1861,  did  most  to  effect  a  change 
in  affairs.  On  the  rush  to  this  field  taking  place  a  population 
1  See  p.  100  for  full  account. 

—  45  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  nearly  five  thousand  was  scattered  over  the  ground  in 
huts  and  tents.  There  were  plenty  of  genuine  diggers,  of 
course,  anxious  to  try  their  luck  on  new  claims,  but  with 
them  came  a  large  number  of  the  worse  types,  including 
ex-convicts  who  expected  to  reap  a  golden  harvest  from  their 
neighbours.  There  came,  also,  a  body  of  Chinamen,  of 
whom  numbers  were  always  to  be  found  at  these  rushes.  It 
was  this  element  which  precipitated  the  trouble. 

The  Chinamen  had  settled  themselves  at  Tipperary 
Gully,  on  the  fringe  of  the  Flat.  The  laws  of  the  mining 
fields  did  not  allow  foreigners  to  pitch  their  camps  among 
the  white  men.  But  though  they  had  complied  with  this 
regulation,  and  behaved  themselves  in  as  orderly  a  manner 
as  could  be  wished,  they  were  not  to  be  left  in  peace.  The 
lawless  ones  among  the  diggers  made  up  their  minds  that  the 
"  Chinks  "  were  not  to  be  tolerated  so  close,  and  at  a  "  Miners' 
Protective  League  "  meeting  a  resolution  was  passed  that 
they  should  be  driven  out.  The  agitators  did  not  let  the 
grass  grow  under  their  feet.  One  night,  before  the  police 
had  any  warning  of  their  intention,  over  a  thousand  armed 
miners  made  a  swoop  down  on  the  unsuspecting  Chinamen 
in  the  Gully  and  swept  it  clear  from  end  to  end.  Huts  were 
burned,  property  was  destroyed,  the  Celestials  were  sent 
flying  for  their  lives,  and  all  their  hard-earned  gold  was 
carried  off. 

At  the  police  station  on  the  fields  was  only  a  handful 
of  men,  insufficient  to  cope  with  any  serious  disorder. 
When  news  of  the  riot  came,  therefore,  the  sergeant  in 
charge  (Saunderson)  *  sent  off  for  reinforcements.  These 
arrived  eventually,  but  in  the  meantime  the  first  step  had 
been  taken  by  arresting  three  of  the  supposed  ringleaders. 

1  Afterwards  superintendent  of  the  Bathurst  district. 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

The  latter  were  confined  in  the  lock-up,  which,  as  at  all  bush 
stations,  was  roughly  composed  of  timber  and  was  guarded 
by  a  strong  outer  stockade.  No  immediate  attempt  at 
rescue  was  made  by  the  miners,  but  the  calling  up  of  extra 
mounted  police  was  soon  to  be  justified. 

"  The  police  camp  was  quiet  at  eight  o'clock  that  night," 
says  one  account,  "  yet  expectant,  for  it  was  known  that  the 
mob  was  gathering  in  the  streets  of  the  township,  and  pres- 
ently the  sounds  of  music  and  revelry  were  heard.  The 
band  played  '  Garryowen,'  '  Cheer,  Boys,  Cheer,'  and  '  See 
the  Conquering  Hero  Comes,'  and  thus  the  crowd  marched 
forward  towards  the  stockade,  carrying  banners  and  number- 
ing between  2,500  and  3,000  strong.  The  police  were  drawn 
up  outside  the  stockade  awaiting  their  coming.  The  mounted 
police  were  in  two  divisions,  thirty  in  one  and  fifteen  in  the 
other.  These  men  were  posted  on  the  right  and  front  wing 
of  the  stockade.  The  footmen  and  others  were  drawn  up 
in  front  of  the  left  wing.  In  all  the  police  force  numbered 
less  than  a  hundred  men.  For  arms  they  had  carbines  and 
pistols,  the  mounted  troopers  having  also  swords.  Captain 
Zouch  and  Mr.  Griffin,  the  Gold  Commissioner,  took  com- 
mand of  operations,  under  them  being  Sub-Inspector 
M'Lerie,  (the  son  of  Captain  M'Lerie  of  the  Sydney  detach- 
ment), and  Sergeant-Ma j  or  Stevenson,  an  officer  of  tried 
experience." 

Having  come  near  to  the  stockade,  the  leaders  of  the  mob 
announced  that  they  demanded  the  release  of  the  prisoners. 
Captain  Zouch  replied  that  this  could  not  be  done,  that  the 
men  in  custody  would  be  brought  before  the  court  in  the 
usual  course  ;  and  both  he  and  Mr.  Commissioner  Griffin  did 
their  best  to  persuade  the  excited  miners  to  disperse  peace- 
fully. Little  heed,  however,  was  paid  to  their  words.  The 

—  47  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

mob  was  bent  on  freeing  the  prisoners,  and  it  was  evident 
by  the  free  display  of  weapons  on  their  part  that  they  would 
not  stop  at  violence  to  effect  their  object.  Some  of  the 
prominent  malcontents  now  proposed  to  have  an  interview 
with  the  prisoners.  This  was  granted,  and  a  body  of  miners 
entered  the  stockade  under  police  escort.  The  result  of 
their  mission  was  only  to  further  inflame  the  crowd's  resolve 
to  free  their  comrades  at  any  cost.  Wild  cheers  and  cries 
of  "  Have  'em  out !  Burn  the  gaol  down  !  "  broke  out,  and 
the  police  saw  that  matters  were  approaching  a  crisis. 

"  Very  well,"  said  Mr.  Griffin,  "  the  blame  may  rest  with 
you."  The  Commissioner  then  repeated  from  memory  the 
words  of  the  Riot  Act,  in  answer  to  which  the  mob  opened 
fire  with  a  volley.  At  this  Captain  Zouch  ordered  the  police 
to  advance,  whereupon  Sub-Inspector  M'Lerie,  at  the  head 
of  his  division  of  mounted  police,  charged  at  the  crowd  with 
drawn  swords.  The  miners'  ranks  broke  before  this  onset, 
and  although  constant  firing  was  kept  up  at  the  troopers 
there  was  no  organised  opposition.  Behind  the  mounted 
men  came  the  foot-police,  firing  steadily  at  intervals  and 
helping  to  drive  the  rabble  towards  the  Burrangong  Creek. 
M'Lerie's  troopers  now  rode  back  to  re-form,  and  the  other 
division,  under  Sergeant-Major  Stevenson,  galloped  forward 
to  complete  the  rout.  As  it  was  now  dark  this  was  no  easy 
task,  but  by  this  time  the  miners  were  beginning  to  lose 
spirit.  Once  more  an  attack  was  made  upon  the  stockade, 
and  once  more  a  determined  charge  by  the  mounted  troopers 
carried  the  day.  Scattered  in  all  directions,  and  many  of 
them  badly  wounded  by  swords  and  bullets,  the  rioters  melted 
away  and  by  3  a.m.  the  battle  of  Lambing  Flat  was  over. 

But  although  the  first  victory  had  fallen  to  the  police 
the  trouble  was  not  ended.  Eight  miners  had  been  killed  in 

-48- 


THE  FIRST  POLICE 

the  skirmish,  and  the  fate  of  these  added  fuel  to  the  fire  of 
the  mob's  resentment.  In  the  morning  there  was  a  general 
roll-up.  Every  able-bodied  man  at  the  diggings  was  im- 
pressed into  service,  arms  and  ammunition  were  secured  in 
large  quantities,  and  the  men  prepared  for  an  assault  on  the 
police  stockade  that  should  be  final.  It  looked  as  if  there 
were  going  to  be  much  bloodshed,  and  in  no  little  alarm  the 
non-combatant  settlers  fled  with  their  families  into  the  hills 
for  safety. 

The  situation  was  now  so  serious  that  Captain  Zouch 
thought  it  wisest  to  carry  off  his  prisoners  to  Yass  and 
apprise  the  Government  of  what  had  occurred.  This  was 
accordingly  done.  The  Colonial  Secretary,  Mr.  Cowper, 
recognised  the  urgency  for  dealing  quickly  and  sharply  with 
such  an  outbreak,  and  ere  long  a  large  body  of  soldiers, 
bluejackets  (from  H.M.S.  Fawn  lying  at  Sydney),  and  police 
were  marching  towards  the  diggings.  They  arrived  to  find 
Lambing  Flat  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  The  mob  had  wreaked 
its  vengeance  first  by  burning  down  the  police  station,  and 
had  then  proceeded  to  wreck  every  other  Government  build- 
ing on  the  fields.  At  the  sight  of  so  formidable  an  array, 
however,  the  miners  gave  up  the  struggle.  From  that  time 
peace  was  restored,  and  the  Flat  experienced  no  further 
trouble  from  rioting. 

On  its  side  the  Government  had  also  learnt  a  lesson.  It 
was  clear  to  Mr.  Cowper  that  the  existing  police  system  was 
unsatisfactory,  with  its  numerous  sub-divisions  that  acted 
independently  of  each  other  and  had  no  cohesion.  The 
outbreak  on  the  goldfields  was  to  be  responsible  for  a  new 
order  of  things,  for  a  statute  which  was  to  formulate  a  force 
that  would  meet  all  the  varied  requirements  of  the  colony. 
In  1862  the  present  Police  Act  (25  Viet.  No.  16)  passed  into  law. 

—  49  —  E 


CHAPTER   IV 

EABLY   BUSHRANGERS 

1812-1846 

Their  origin — The  "  bush  " — Van  Diemen's  Land  types — Jeffries  and 
Dunne — Michael  Howe — Repeated  escapes — A  price  on  his  head — 
Capture  and  death — Matthew  Brady — The  fate  of  a  traitor — Attack 
on  Sorell  Gaol — Surrender  to  John  Batman — Misplaced  sympathy — 
"  Mosquito,"  bushranger — Martin  Cash — Daring  escape  from  Port 
Arthur — Threat  to  Sir  John  Franklin — A  successful  trap — In  New 
South  Wales — Outbreak  at  Bathurst — Mounted  Police  and  soldiers 
in  the  field — The  Bushrangers  Act — Unwarranted  arrests — "  Farm 
constables  " — Jackey  Jackey — A  Norfolk  Island  rising. 

BUSHRANGING  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  origin  in 
two  causes.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  the 
ineradicable  taint  in  many  of  the  convicts  which  impelled 
them  to  revert  to  a  career  of  crime  with  or  without  reason. 
The  natural  instincts  of  the  thief  and  murderer  de- 
manded to  be  satisfied.  Secondly,  life  in  the  road-making 
gangs  or  under  a  tyrannical  master  was  often  accompanied 
by  tortures  which  maddened  a  man  to  desperation.  With 
the  bush  at  their  very  doors,  there  was  every  temptation  to 
burst  their  bonds  and  try  the  hazard  of  fortune  in  the  wilds.1 

1  As  every  escapee  who  took  to  the  bush  was  styled  a  "  bushranger," 
the  term  was  sometimes  applied  to  men  who  sought  this  mode  of  life  with- 
out actually  staining  their  hands  with  crime.  These,  however,  were  not 
in  the  majority.  Most  of  the  convicts  who  broke  prison  were  driven  to 
commit  robberies  in  order  to  live.  In  the  official  Gazettes  of  the  day  one 
finds  the  synonymous  terms  "  bolter  "  and  "  absconder  "  almost  as  freely 
used. 

—  50  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,    1812-1846 

But  very  few  of  the  convicts  who  thus  escaped  from  serfdom 
enjoyed  their  freedom  for  any  length  of  time.  Some  were 
killed  by  the  blacks,  ever  on  the  look-out  for  isolated  white 
men  ;  others  were  shot  down  red-handed  by  soldiers  and 
police  ;  others  again  were  captured  to  expiate  their  crimes 
on  the  gallows,  or  to  be  sentenced  to  long  terms  of  imprison- 
ment. 

In  speaking  of  the  Australian  "  bush,"  be  it  said,  one  is 
using  a  term  which  covers  a  variety  of  country.  That  of 
the  eastern  and  south-eastern  states  is  mostly  characterised 
by  gum-trees,  black-green  eucalypti,  more  or  less  thickly 
clustering  on  gently  undulating  plains.  These  level 
stretches  extend  for  many  hundreds  of  miles  in  unbroken 
monotony.  Where  the  mountain  ranges  break  the  sweep  of 
the  plains  the  traveller  finds  more  attraction  in  the  mountain 
ash  and  the  box-tree,  and  the  thick  tangle  of  bush  and  fern 
which  clothe  the  slopes.  On  the  broad  reaches  of  the  plain 
there  is  no  undergrowth,  only  grass  which  is  burnt  to  a  dull 
brown  in  the  heat  of  summer.  This  is  one  kind  of  "  bush,"  a 
country  that  as  a  rule  well  repays  for  the  labour  of  clearing 
and  cultivation.  Very  different  is  the  "  bush,"  or  "  scrub," 
of  the  interior  of  southern  and  western  Australia,  where  the 
trees  are  replaced  by  stunted  clumps  of  shrubs  and  by  spiny 
spinifex  ;  where  the  grass  gives  place  to  dreary  wastes  of 
sand  and  stone  ;  and  where  there  is  a  scarcity  of  water. 

It  is  in  these  vast  expanses  behind  the  mountain  ranges 
that  the  sheep  and  cattle  stations,  Australia's  principal  source 
of  wealth,  are  to  be  found.  Behind  them  again,  stretching 
farther  and  farther  back,  it  is  still  "  bush  "  of  one  kind  or 
another,  a  little-known  country  which  the  busliman  speaks 
of  as  the  "  back  of  beyond,"  the  "  Never-Never  land,"  and 
of  which  he  will  tell  you  new  and  wonderful  stories  without 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

end.  Such,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  country  which  is 
largely  associated  in  our  minds  with  the  gangs  of  outlaws 
that  from  time  to  time  have  infested  it. 

Of  the  earliest  bushrangers — for  this  term  may  be  applied 
to  all  and  sundry  prison-breakers — the  most  notorious  were 
those  who  were  associated  with  Van  Diemen's  Land.  They 
were  characterised  by  a  ferocity  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
nature  of  the  class  of  criminals  for  whom  the  island  was  a 
special  reserve. 

Neither  New  South  Wales  nor  Victoria  ever  possessed  a 
ruffian  of  the  calibre  of  Jeffries  (appropriately  named  "  The 
Monster  "),  who  drove  a  white  woman — a  settler's  wife — 
with  her  baby,  before  him  into  the  bush,  and  dashed  out  the 
infant's  brains  against  a  tree  so  that  without  its  burden  she 
might  walk  faster  !  Then  there  was  the  equally  infamous 
Dunne,  of  whom  a  revolting  story  is  told.  Having  shot  a 
blackfellow  whose  "  gin  "  he  desired,  he  cut  off  the  dead 
man's  head  and  made  the  woman  wear  it  hung  from  her 
neck  by  a  string,  while  he  compelled  her  by  threats  to  accom- 
pany him  to  his  hiding-place.  The  bushrangers,  Michael 
Howe,  Matthew  Brady,  Mosquito,  Cash  and  Kavanagh,  were 
some  of  them  little  less  than  wild  beasts  in  their  worst 
moments,  and  their  exploits  may  be  set  down  here  as  typical 
of  the  lawlessness  of  those  days. 

Howe  was  a  seaman  and  shipmaster  in  a  small  way  in 
England  before  he  took  to  evil  courses.  Having  been  con- 
victed of  highway  robbery  he  was  transported  to  Van  Die- 
men's  Land  in  1812,  there  being  assigned  to  a  Mr.  Ingle. 
A  servant's  life  (or  a  "  dog's  life,"  as  he  put  it)  on  a  station 
by  no  means  suited  his  taste,  and  in  a  little  while  he  made  his 
escape  to  join  a  band  of  bush  thieves  led  by  a  man  named 
Whitehead.  This  gang,  it  is  said,  was  twenty  strong,  com- 

—  52  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,    1812-1846 

prising  an  ex-soldier,  and  two  native  women  who  made 
themselves  invaluable  as  spies  and  trackers. 

The  first  notable  outrage  they  committed  was  to  attack 
the  settlement  of  New  Norfolk,  where  they  "  stuck  up  " 
the  settlers  and  obtained  quantities  of  firearms  and  ammuni- 
tion. Two  other  successful  raids  followed,  but  in  the  last  one 
Whitehead  was  seriously  wounded.  At  his  leader's  request 
Howe  killed  him,  and,  as  the  most  dominant  of  the  band, 
he  succeeded  to  the  command.  The  new  chief  had  no  small 
opinion  of  himself.  He  took  the  high-sounding  title  of 
"  Governor  of  the  Ranges,"  drew  up  formal  articles  of  mem- 
bership which  his  followers  had  to  sign,  and  exacted  the 
strictest  obedience  from  them. 

For  some  considerable  time  Howe  evaded  all  pursuit  and 
raided  at  will.  But  his  own  treachery  was  eventually  his 
undoing.  He  had  become  attached  to  a  native  girl,  known 
as  "  Black  Mary,"  an  adherent  who  served  him  loyally.  One 
day  a  party  of  soldiers  ran  the  pair  very  close,  and  the  bush- 
ranger, to  save  his  own  skin,  fired  at  his  weaker  companion 
to  kill  her  before  he  took  to  his  heels.  However,  his  inten- 
tion to  prevent  her  falling  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies  was 
thwarted,  for  the  bullets  did  not  wound  her  mortally. 
Black  Mary  was  taken  alive,  and  survived  to  head  the  next 
pursuit  after  the  ruffian.  By  her  persistent  tracking  Howe 
was  so  closely  hunted  that  he  at  last  sent  a  message  to 
Colonel  Sorell,  the  Governor,  offering  to  surrender  on  terms. 
Extraordinary  as  it  may  appear,  Sorell  entered  into  negotia- 
tions, the  bargain  at  length  being  made  that  in  return  for  a 
pardon  he  should  betray  his  comrades. 

Howe  yielded,  and  was  consigned  to  prison  pending  the 
intercession  for  his  liberty.  But  the  bargain  was  too  one 
sided.  Little  help  was  afforded  by  him  to  the  authorities, 

—  53  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

and  in  his  absence  the  rest  of  the  gang  continued  the  game 
merrily.  Then  Howe  began  to  weary  of  inaction.  One 
morning,  while  taking  exercise  under  the  supervision  of  a 
single  constable,  he  escaped  again  and  was  soon  with  his 
old  associates.  Of  these  only  a  few  remained,  but  fresh 
members  swelled  the  number,  for  other  convicts  were  at  large 
in  the  bush  ready  for  any  enterprise. 

By  the  treachery  of  one  of  the  gang  Howe  was  a  second 
time  brought  within  reach  of  the  law.  He  was  disarmed  and 
bound  and  conducted  along  the  road  to  Hobart  Town,  where 
a  handsome  reward  awaited  his  captors.  But  once  again 
the  bushranger  proved  one  too  many  for  them.  Getting  a 
hand  free  he  drew  a  knife,  stabbed  one  of  his  two  guards,  and 
with  the  fellows  gun  shot  the  other  dead.  Thenceforth  he 
could  entertain  no  hope  of  leniency  on  the  part  of  the 
Governor.  The  life  of  the  hunted  was  to  be  his  lot,  and  he 
betook  himself  to  the  bush  to  play  it  out  to  the  end. 

In  order  to  expedite  the  capture  of  this  desperate  crimi- 
nal Governor  Sorell  offered  a  large  reward,  to  which  was 
added  the  promise  of  freedom  and  a  passage  home  if  the 
fortunate  claimant  were  a  convict.  This  bait  had  the 
desired  result.  A  transported  sailor  named  Jack  Worrall 
got  in  touch  with  one  Warburton,  a  former  companion  of  the 
bushranger.  The  two  of  them  laid  their  plans  carefully  and 
Howe's  career  came  to  an  end.  The  manner  in  which  this 
was  effected  is  best  told  in  the  actual  words  of  Worrall  himself. 

"  I  was  determined,"  he  says,  "  to  make  a  push  for  the 
capture  of  this  villain,  Mick  Howe,  for  which  I  was  promised 
a  passage  to  England  in  the  next  ship  that  sailed,  and  the 
amount  of  reward  laid  upon  his  head.  I  found  out  a  man 
of  the  name  of  Warburton,  who  was  in  the  habit  of  hunting 
kangaroos  for  their  skins,  and  who  had  frequently  met  Howe 

—  54 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,   1812-1846 

during  his  excursions,  and  sometimes  furnished  him  with 
ammunition.  He  gave  me  such  an  account  of  Howe's  habits 
that  I  felt  convinced  we  could  take  him  with  a  little  assist- 
ance. I  therefore  spoke  to  a  man  named  Pugh,  belonging 
to  the  48th  Regiment,  one  who  I  knew  was  a  most  cool  and 
resolute  fellow.  He  immediately  entered  into  my  views, 
and  having  applied  to  Major  Bell,  his  commanding  officer, 
he  was  recommended  by  him  to  the  Governor,  by  whom  he 
was  permitted  to  act,  and  allowed  to  join  us  ;  so  he  and  I 
went  directly  to  Warburton,  who  heartily  entered  into  the 
scheme,  and  all  things  were  arranged  for  putting  it  into 
execution. 

"  The  plan  was  this  :  Pugh  and  I  were  to  remain  in 
Warburton's  hut,  while  Warburton  himself  was  to  fall  into 
Howe's  way.  The  hut  was  on  the  River  Shannon,  standing 
so  completely  by  itself,  and  so  out  of  the  track  of  anybody 
who  might  be  feared  by  Howe,  that  there  was  every  proba- 
bility [of  accomplishing  our  wishes,  and  thus  '  scotch  the 
snake,'  as  they  say,  if  not  kill  it.  Pugh  and  I  accordingly  went 
to  the  appointed  hut.  We  arrived  there  before  daybreak, 
and  having  made  a  hearty  breakfast,  Warburton  set  out  to 
seek  Howe.  He  took  no  arms  with  him,  in  order  to  still 
more  effectually  carry  his  point,  but  Pugh  and  I  were  pro- 
vided with  muskets  and  pistols.  The  sun  had  just  been  an 
hour  up  when  we  saw  Warburton  and  Howe  upon  the  top  of 
the  hill  coming  towards  the  hut.  We  expected  they  would 
be  with  us  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  and  so  we  sat  down  upon 
the  trunk  of  a  tree  inside  the  hut,  calmly  waiting  their  arrival. 
An  hour  passed,  but  they  did  not  come,  and  I  crept  to  the 
door  cautiously  and  peeped  out.  There  I  saw  them  standing 
within  a  hundred  yards  of  us  hi  earnest  conversation  ;  as  I 
learned  afterwards,  the  delay  arose  from  Howe  suspecting 

—  55  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

that  all  was  not  right.  I  drew  back  from  the  door  to  my 
station,  and  about  ten  minutes  after  this  we  plainly  heard 
footsteps  and  the  voice  of  Warburton. 

"  Another  moment  and  Howe  slowly  entered  the  hut — 
his  gun  presented  and  cocked.  The  instant  he  espied  us  he 
cried  out  '  Is  that  your  game  ?  '  and  immediately  fired,  but 
Pugh's  activity  prevented  the  shot  from  taking  effect,  for 
he  knocked  the  gun  aside.  Howe  ran  off  like  a  wolf.  I  fired 
but  missed.  Pugh  then  halted  and  took  aim  at  him,  but 
also  missed.  I  immediately  flung  away  the  gun  and  ran 
after  Howe  ;  Pugh  also  pursued  ;  Warburton  was  a  con- 
siderable distance  away.  I  ran  very  fast ;  so  did  Howe  ; 
and  if  he  had  not  fallen  down  an  unexpected  bank,  I  should 
not  have  been  fleet  enough  for  him.  This  fall,  however, 
brought  me  up  with  him  ;  he  was  on  his  legs  and  preparing 
to  climb  a  broken  bank,  which  would  have  given  him  a  free 
run  into  the  wood,  when  I  presented  my  pistol  at  him  and 
desired  him  to  stand  ;  he  drew  forth  another,  but  did  not 
level  it  at  me.  We  were  then  about  fifteen  yards  from  each 
other,  the  bank  he  fell  from  being  between  us. 

"  He  stared  at  me  with  astonishment,  and  to  tell  you 
the  truth,  I  was  a  little  astonished  at  him,  for  he  was  covered 
with  patches  of  kangaroo  skins,  and  wore  a  black  beard — a 
haversack  and  powder  horn  slung  across  his  shoulders.  I 
wore  my  beard  also,  and  a  curious  pair  we  looked.  After  a 
moment's  pause  he  cried  out,  '  Black  beard  against  grey 
beard  for  a  million  !  '  and  fired.  I  slapped  at  him,  and  I 
believe  hit  him,  for  he  staggered,  but  rallied  again,  and  was 
clearing  the  bank  between  him  and  me  when  Pugh  ran  up 
and  with  the  butt-end  of  his  firelock  knocked  him  down, 
jumped  after  him,  and  battered  his  brains  out,  just  as  he 
was  opening  a  clasp  knife  to  defend  himself." 

-56- 


ON    THE    TRAIL    IN    THE    BACK    COUNTRY. 
I.  A  Mounted  Police  Camel  Train.         2.  Crossing  a  River. 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,    1812-1846 

It  was  a  dog's  death,  and  very  far  removed  from  the 
end  that  Howe  had  pictured  for  himself.  He  kept  a  diary 
in  which  he  wrote  down  some  of  the  ambitious  dreams  that 
occupied  his  mind.  It  was  his  hope  to  have  become  the 
chief  of  a  great  band  and  so  powerful  that  he  could  set  the 
law  at  absolute  defiance.  He  more  than  once  asserted 
openly  that  many  of  the  police  who  were  seeking  him  were 
actually  in  league  with  the  gang,  and  this  fact  it  is  not  hard 
to  believe  when  we  remember  that  nearly  all  the  constables 
were  prisoners  of  the  Crown  and  not  of  unimpeachable 
integrity. 

The  case  of  Matthew  Brady  is  the  more  interesting  be- 
cause it  serves  to  reintroduce  to  us  that  fine  old  Victorian 
pioneer,  John  Batman.  In  Brady,  too,  we  have  a  striking 
example  of  a  scoundrel  elevated  to  the  position  of  a  hero  and 
martyr  by  a  wave  of  false  sentiment.  Too  much  has  been 
made  of  the  romantic  side  of  bushranging  in  the  past ;  one 
must  deprecate  a  tendency  to  glorify  the  deeds  of  men  who 
were  nothing  more  than  despicable,  hardened  thieves  and 
cut-throats.  A  great  gulf  stretches  between  the  well- 
accoutred,  somewhat  dandy  bushranger  of  fiction,  with  his 
fine  chivalry  and  bold  bearing,  and  the  Simon  Pure  ruffian 
who  so  often  killed  for  the  mere  lust  of  killing,  who  betrayed 
his  comrades  without  hesitation  to  save  his  own  neck,  and 
who  led  a  life  of  intermittent  hardship  and  misery. 

Brady's  strong  appeal  to  the  minds  of  his  sympathisers 
was  his  attitude  towards  women.  By  official  designation  a 
"  gentleman  convict,"  l  he  was  scrupulous  in  treating  them 
well  and  in  preventing  any  act  of  violence  on  the  part  of  his 

1  According  to  the  loose  system  of  classifying  convicts  in  vogue  in  the 
early  days  of  transportation,  they  were  divided  into  three  classes  as  "  town 
thieves,"  "  rural  labourers,"  and  "  gentlemen."  By  this  last  term  were 
indicated  those  who  were  educated  men. 

—  57  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

followers.  Whether  it  was  actual  chivalry  or  a  mere  pose 
which  his  astute  mind  suggested  would  serve  him  eventually, 
it  was  admittedly  a  good  trait  in  his  character.  But  there  is 
nothing  else  to  commend  him.  He  figures  hi  the  "  Newgate 
Calendar  "  of  Australia  as  a  common  type  of  criminal, 
remarkable  only  for  possessing  rather  more  skill  and  auda- 
city than  some  of  his  fellows. 

It  was  in  1824  that  Brady  reached  Van  Diemen's  Land 
as  a  convict.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  escape  from  the 
rigours  of  the  Macquarie  Harbour  penal  settlement  at  the 
earliest  opportunity,  and  not  many  months  had  gone  by 
before  he  was  in  the  bush  with  half-a-dozen  companions. 
By  reason  of  his  unusual  height  and  strength,  coupled  with 
an  air  of  command,  he  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  band. 
His  followers  were  sworn  to  obey  him  implicitly,  and  were 
impelled  to  keep  their  oath  by  the  certainty  that  Brady 
would  have  killed  them  ruthlessly  on  the  least  suspicion  of 
treachery. 

As  an  illustration  of  his  merciless  treatment  of  an  enemy 
the  following  story  is  told.  He  was  once  betrayed  by  a 
member  of  his  gang  and  caught  by  the  soldiers  while  asleep 
in  a  hut.  As  he  lay  helpless  on  the  floor,  with  arms  well 
bound  with  rope,  he  asked  his  two  guards  for  a  drink  of 
water.  Very  foolishly  both  men  went  out  to  fill  a  bucket  at 
the  stream.  It  was  night  time  and  a  fire  blazed  near  the 
hut  door.  Brady  rolled  quickly  towards  it,  held  his  hand 
out  over  the  flames  and  burnt  his  bonds.  When  the  soldiers 
returned  their  prey  had  escaped.  It  was  only  a  week  later 
that  the  informer  fell  into  Brady's  hands.  The  bushranger 
was  at  his  supper  when  the  traitor  was  brought  before  him. 
"  I  will  give  you  while  I  eat  my  meal,"  he  said  curtly  ;  "  you 
can  say  your  prayers."  After  he  had  finished  he  ordered 

-58- 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,   1812-1846 

the  doomed  man  to  walk  to  a  tree  some  yards  away,  but 
ere  the  other  had  taken  many  steps  Brady  put  a  bullet 
through  his  head. 

After  several  minor  escapades — raids  in  which  they 
plundered  settlers,  burnt  down  houses,  and  incidentally  shot 
several  people — Brady  and  his  gang  conceived  the  bold  idea 
of  attacking  the  gaol  at  Sorell,  near  Hobart,  and  freeing 
the  prisoners.  The  plan  was  carried  out  successfully.  The 
bushrangers  descended  on  the  district,  made  some  prisoners, 
lay  by  until  night,  and  then  took  the  soldier-warders  by 
surprise.  Most  of  the  latter,  with  the  other  captives,  were 
locked  up  in  the  cells,  the  original  inmates  of  which  had  now 
been  given  their  liberty.  As  a  final  artistic  touch  before 
departing,  Brady  dressed  up  a  log  of  wood  in  a  soldier's 
tunic,  set  a  cap  on  it,  and  left  the  effigy  propped  up  against 
the  gaol  door  with  a  musket  alongside. 

This  deed  of  daring  put  a  bigger  price  on  Brady's  head, 
and  set  police  and  self-enrolled  thief-takers  eagerly  search- 
ing for  his  whereabouts.  But  the  band  had  a  safe  retreat 
in  the  fastnesses  of  the  hills  ;  they  knew  every  path  and 
gully,  and  laughed  at  the  efforts  made  to  run  them  down. 
To  show  his  contempt  for  the  Governor,  who  offered  a 
tempting  reward  for  his  capture,  the  bushranger  retorted 
with  an  insulting  notice  that  was  posted  publicly  in  Hobart. 
It  read  thus — 

"  Mountain  Home,  April  25. — It  has  caused  Matthew 
Brady  much  concern  that  such  a  person  known  as  Sir  George 
Arthur  is  at  large.  Twenty  gallons  of  rum  will  be  given  to 
any  person  that  will  deliver  his  person  unto  me. 

"  (Signed)  M.  BEADY." 

However,  Brady  had  to  face  the  common  end  of  such  evil 
—  59  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

doers  as  himself.  Stragglers  from  the  gang  were  cut  off  and 
caught,  others  deserted.  Gradually  his  followers  decreased 
in  number,  until  at  last  the  bushranger  leader  found  himself 
alone  in  the  wilds,  with  the  hue  and  cry  concentrated  upon 
him.  He  had  been  badly  wounded  in  the  leg  in  one  encounter 
with  his  pursuers,  and  he  must  have  realised  that  the  game 
was  about  up. 

To  John  Batman  of  Launceston  belongs  the  credit  of 
capturing  Brady  single-handed.  The  settler,  who  was  an 
experienced  bushman,  spent  many  days  searching  the  hill 
country  and  in  time  got  upon  the  other's  tracks.  Then  one 
morning  the  two  met.  The  bushranger,  a  pitiable  object 
in  his  ragged  clothes,  haggard  and  dejected,  covered  Batman 
with  his  gun.  "  Are  you  a  soldier  ?  "  he  called  out,  observ- 
ing that  the  settler  had  on  a  military  forage  cap.  Batman 
reassured  him  on  this  point  and  revealed  his  identity. 
"  You'd  better  surrender,  Brady,"  he  said,  "  there's  no  chance 
for  you."  The  bushranger  lowered  his  gun,  and  after  con- 
sidering for  some  moments  replied  :  "  You  are  right,  Bat- 
man ;  my  time  is  come.  I  will  yield  to  you  because  you  are 
a  brave  man." 

That  was  the  end  of  Matthew  Brady's  career.  The  last 
scene  of  all  was  the  scaffold  whereon  he  paid  the  just  penalty 
of  many  atrocious  crimes.  And,  remarkable  as  it  may 
appear,  there  were  foolish  sentimentalists  in  plenty  to  make 
a  hero  of  him  and  endeavour  to  secure  his  pardon.  Bonwick, 
in  his  history  of  bushranging,  says  :  "  Petition  followed 
petition  for  his  deliverance  from  the  halter.  Settlers  told 
of  his  forbearance,  and  ladies  of  his  kindness.  His  cell  was 
besieged  with  visitors,  and  his  table  was  loaded  with  presents. 
Baskets  of  fruit,  bouquets  of  flowers,  and  dishes  of  con- 
fectionery prepared  by  his  fair  admirers,  were  tendered  in 

—  60  — 


i  BA5S  3TRAI 


SKITCH   MAP   OF   VAN    DIEMEN'S    LAND. 


—  61  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

abundance  to  the  gaoler  for  his  distinguished  captive.  The 
last  moment  came.  The  dramatic  scene  was  maintained  to 
its  close.  Pinioned,  he  stood  on  the  scaffold,  before  a  dense 
mass  of  spectators,  who  cheered  him  for  his  courage,  or 
grieved  bitterly  for  his  fate.  He  received  the  consolations 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  ;  he  bade  a  familiar  adieu  to 
the  gentlemen  about  him  ;  and  he  died  more  like  a  patient 
martyr  than  a  felon  murderer." 

Such  laudation  of  a  criminal  was  a  sad  reflection  on  the 
society  of  the  day,  and  is  in  striking  contrast  to  the  attitude 
adopted  some  time  earlier  while  Brady  was  still  at  large. 
Then,  in  fear  for  their  lives,  a  large  number  of  settlers  and 
their  wives  petitioned  Governor  Arthur  (the  successor  to 
Sorell)  to  execute  certain  of  the  prisoners  then  in  gaol,  and 
thus  obviate  the  possibility  of  any  escaping  to  turn  bush- 
ranger. It  is  stated  that  the  Governor  responded  to  the 
petition  by  hanging  some  forty. 

The  bushranger  Mosquito  was  an  aboriginal,  a  member 
of  a  Sydney  tribe  who  suffered  transportation  to  Van  Diemen's 
Land  for  the  murder  of  his  gin.  At  Macquarie  Harbour  he 
was  soon  employed  by  the  authorities  in  hunting  escaped 
convicts,  for  his  powers  of  tracking  were  exceptional.  But 
the  temptation  to  break  prison  himself  was  too  strong  to  be 
resisted,  and  he  finally  made  a  dash  for  liberty.  The  next 
that  was  heard  of  Mosquito  was  that  he  had  become  the 
leader  of  a  tribe  of  blacks  at  Oyster  Bay.  Over  these  natives 
he  exercised  unbounded  influence,  inducing  them  to  aid  him 
in  harassing  the  whites.  The  island  was  soon  startled  by  the 
commission  of  several  atrocities.  In  one  case  it  would  be  a 
settler's  farm  attacked  and  the  brutal  murder  of  all  its 
occupants,  men,  women  and  children.  In  another  the  way- 
laying of  some  party  whose  mutilated  remains  in  the  bush 

—  62  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,   1812-1846 

told  the  story  of  their  fate.  So  terrible  a  pest  did  this  black- 
fellow  and  his  adopted  tribe  (they  numbered  about  200) 
become  that  a  very  big  reward  had  to  be  offered  before 
his  capture  could  be  effected.  He  was  eventually  tracked 
down  by  another  native  in  the  company  of  two  police 
constables,  and  after  making  a  desperate  fight  was  badly 
wounded.  The  police  carried  him  back  to  Hobart  and 
there  he  was  duly  executed,  together  with  another  aborigi- 
nal, Black  Jack,  who  had  been  prominently  associated 
with  him. 

Of  the  same  class  as  Howe  and  Brady,  though  of  a  later 
date,  was  the  bushranger  Cash.  Martin  Cash,  to  give  him 
his  full  name,  fell  into  evil  courses  by  accident.  Wrongly 
suspected  of  illegally  branding  some  one  else's  cattle,  and 
conscious  that  as  an  ex-convict  he  would  be  hardly  dealt 
with,  he  fled  the  police  and  then  stole  and  sold  some  animals 
belonging  to  a  man  who  had  defrauded  him.  Having  defied 
the  law  he  made  an  honest  effort  to  keep  straight,  but  cir- 
cumstances were  against  him.  The  police  followed  too 
closely  on  his  tracks  in  New  South  Wales  and  he  accordingly 
took  ship  to  Van  Diemen's  Land. 

In  the  story  of  his  life  which  he  subsequently  wrote  Cash 
tells  how  he  was  again  wrongfully  charged  with  theft,  and 
how,  despite  his  innocence,  he  became  convicted.  Sentence 
to  a  penal  settlement  followed,  but  not  for  long.  When  out 
with  a  road  party  of  prisoners  he  gave  his  guards  the  slip  and 
hid  himself  in  the  bush.  However,  two  days'  freedom  was 
all  he  secured  ;  a  search-party  chanced  upon  his  retreat  and 
he  was  recaptured.  As  a  dangerous  criminal  he  was  now 
heavily  leg-ironed,  while  a  closer  watch  was  kept  upon  his 
movements.  The  chances  of  escape,  one  would  have  thought, 
were  eliminated,  but  Cash  was  no  ordinary  man.  Even  in 

-63- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

these  conditions  he  found  opportunity  to  break  his  fetters, 
scale  the  high  stockade  surrounding  the  prison  yard,  and 
unobserved  leave  the  settlement. 

For  a  little  over  a  year  Cash  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the 
police.  Then  one  day  he  was  identified  by  a  constable,  ap- 
prehended, and  a  third  time  re-sentenced  to  penal  servitude. 
Another  dash  for  liberty  from  Port  Arthur  and  another 
recapture  brought  him  still  heavier  punishment,  and  then, 
undeterred  by  his  previous  experiences,  he  made  his  final 
and  successful  escape.  This  time  he  found  two  companions 
— convicts  named  Kavanagh  and  Jones — ready  to  share  his 
fortunes.  The  way  to  freedom  was  fraught  with  many 
difficulties.  Armed  sentries  and  big  watch  dogs  patrolled 
the  roads  and  every  point  on  the  two  narrow  strips  of  land 
that  connected  the  peninsula  with  the  mainland.  But  by 
clever  manoeuvring  Cash  led  his  mates  through  the  cordon 
of  soldiers  and  got  clear  away. 

With  fresh  clothes  and  provisions  obtained  from  farm- 
houses and  other  places  which  they  visited  the  refugees  entered 
upon  a  career  of  bushranging.  Robbery  followed  robbery 
in  quick  succession  and  the  colony  experienced  a  sensation 
that  it  had  not  enjoyed  for  some  years.  Soldiers  and  police 
were  baffled  in  their  attempts  to  surprise  them.  Their 
raids  were  made  with  startling  unexpectedness  and  with  a 
daring  that  paralysed  opposition.  It  was  about  this  time 
that  the  three  issued  their  famous  threat  to  the  Governor, 
Sir  John  Franklin,  who  had  seized  the  person  of  Mrs.  Cash 
on  a  charge  of  "  receiving  "  and  lodged  her  in  Hobart  gaol, 
"  If  the  said  Mrs.  Cash  is  not  released  forthwith,"  they 
wrote,  "  and  does  not  receive  proper  remuneration,  we  will 
in  the  first  instance,  visit  Government  House  and,  beginning 
with  Sir  John,  administer  a  wholesome  lesson  in  the  shape 

-64- 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,   1812-1846 

of  a  sound  flogging.  After  which  we  will  pay  the  same 
currency  to  all  his  followers." 

There  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  this  impudent 
threat  would  be  carried  into  execution,  and  the  authorities 
were  in  no  little  alarm  for  their  safety.  That  the  police 
officials  not  actively  engaged  in  the  hunt  were  in  some  fear 
is  evidenced  by  the  following  paragraph  from  the  Hoba/rt 
Town  Advertiser,  which  Mr.  White  quotes  in  his  account  of 
Cash  i  :— 

"  So  universal  has  been  the  panic  among  the  police  that 
the  acting  police  magistrate,  living  in  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lous towns  in  the  country  and  at  a  distance  of  several  miles 
from  the  scene  of  their  depredations,  has  actually  applied  for 
a  military  force  for  his  own  particular  protection,  fancying, 
as  he  alleges,  that  he  may  be  carried  off  and  obliged  to  pay 
ransom."  The  same  paper,  of  a  later  date,  contained  the 
following :  "  The  perfect  insufficiency  of  the  police  to 
apprehend  Cash  and  his  troupe  is  at  length  acknowledged, 
after  some  months'  unavailing  efforts.  The  military  have 
been  in  consequence  ordered  to  their  assistance.  Thirty- 
nine  men,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  Doreton  and 
Mr.  Stephenson,  have  been  ordered  to  occupy  several  posts 
in  the  district  which  has  been  the  scene  of  their  daring 
exploits.  Here,  stationed  at  different  points,  they  may 
intercept  them  in  their  progress  when  necessity  compels  them 
to  leave  their  haunts,  which  their  knowledge  of  the  locality 
renders  secure  while  they  choose  to  remain  hi  seclusion. 
We  have  no  doubt  that  these  measures  will  prove  success- 
ful." 

That  these  measures  did  not  prove  immediately  success- 
ful was  shown  by  fresh  raids  upon  outlying  settlers,  whom  the 

1  History  of  Buehranging,  by  Charles  White.     Vol.  I. 

—  65  —  F 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

bushrangers  "  stuck  up  "  to  a  pretty  tune.  To  show  his 
contempt  for  the  military,  Cash  even  singled  out  a  well- 
known  officer  who  had  been  on  the  search  for  him,  and  made 
this  gentleman  an  ignominious  prisoner  among  his  own 
household.  And  so  the  game  went  on.  The  bush  "  fortress  " 
to  which  the  gang  retreated  when  pressed  was  now  well 
stocked  with  loot,  and  the  trio  felt  much  elation  over  their 
exploits.  But  all  things  come  to  an  end,  and  bushranging 
is  not  a  business  that  can  be  followed  with  impunity.  The 
remarkable  success  that  had  attended  him  so  far  led  Cash 
to  take  greater  risks.  A  trap  was  laid  for  him,  and  at  last 
the  police  triumphed. 

The  bait  was  a  cunning  one.  Mrs.  Cash  had  been  released 
in  the  expectation  that  her  husband  sooner  or  later  would  join 
her  in  Hobart,  and  so  it  fell  out.  The  bushranger  secretly 
entered  the  town,  where  he  had  friends,  and  was  recognised  in 
the  street.  The  hue  and  cry  was  raised  at  once.  Cash  bolted, 
firing  at  his  pursuers,  but  the  number  of  these  increased  at 
every  turn.  In  a  short  time  the  way  was  barred  for  escape  ; 
he  was  overpowered  and  manacled  after  a  sharp  hand-to- 
hand  fight,  in  which  a  constable  was  mortally  wounded,  and 
was  borne  off  to  the  lock-up. 

At  his  trial  Cash  was  placed  in  the  dock  with  Kavanagh, 
who,  having  been  incapacitated  by  the  accidental  discharge 
of  his  gun,  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  police  some  weeks 
before.  The  two  men  were  condemned  to  death,  but  a 
reprieve  was  obtained  and  the  sentence  altered  to  trans- 
portation for  life.  In  the  end  Cash  turned  over  a  new  leaf. 
Having  served  a  long  term  at  Norfolk  Island  with  good 
conduct,  he  gained  release  and  eventually  became  a  staid 
farmer  in  the  vicinity  of  Hobart.  Both  his  companions, 
Kavanagh  and  Jones,  ended  their  careers  on  the  gallows. 

—  66  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,   1812-1846 

Of  bushrangers  who  created  a  reign  of  terror  in  New 
South  Wales  and  the  outlying  settlements  which  later 
formed  the  separate  colony  of  Victoria,  some  mention  has 
been  already  made.  To  enumerate  in  full  the  immediate 
imitators  of  Donohue  and  Underwood  would  occupy  many 
pages,  and  but  a  summary  of  them  can  be  included  here. 
A  great  number  of  the  most  notable  of  these  gangs  operated 
on  the  Western  Road,  afterwards  the  scene  of  many  desper- 
ate affrays  with  the  better-known  bushrangers  of  the  sixties. 
It  is  to  these,  therefore,  that  we  may  first  turn. 

In  the  Bathurst  district  in  1826  was  a  band  led  by  a  man 
named  Sullivan.  With  these  outlaws  the  Mounted  Police 
had  many  a  tussle.  One  of  them,  Morris  Connell,  was  shot 
down  by  Corporal  Brown  ;  of  the  others  four  were  executed 
and  three  transported  to  Norfolk  Island  for  life.  The  next 
few  years  saw  some  minor  affairs,  and  then,  in  1830,  came 
an  organised  outbreak  on  a  rather  unusual  scale.  A  party 
of  assigned  convict  servants  on  a  farm  at  Evernden,  near 
Bathurst,  rose  against  their  master,  stole  a  quantity  of  arms 
and  ammunition,  and  made  a  round  of  other  farms  in  the 
neighbourhood  in  order  to  gain  recruits.  Ere  long  their 
numbers  had  swelled  to  nearly  a  hundred,  but  when  the 
authorities  had  been  apprised  of  the  rising  and  began  to  take 
the  field  the  new  bushranging  corps  had  dwindled  to  twenty. 
Many  who  had  been  forced  to  join  thought  better  of  their 
decision,  and  those  who  desired  to  fall  out  were  not  hindered. 

The  mere  score  left  under  Sullivan's  leadership  consisted 
of  the  most  determined  and  dangerous  criminals.  To  com- 
bat this  band,  who  already  had  several  robberies  and  one 
brutal,  unprovoked  murder  to  their  account,  a  body  of  volun- 
teers was  raised  by  a  Mr.  William  Suttor,  a  prominent  settler. 
By  means  of  native  assistance  the  bushrangers  were  tracked 

-67- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

to  their  haunt,  but  the  position  proved  to  be  too  strong, 
and  the  attacking  party  was  forced  to  fall  back.  A  number 
of  mounted  police  under  Lieutenant  Brown,  of  Bathurst, 
similarly  failed  tojdislodge  them.  A  day  or  so  later  a  detach- 
ment of  police  was  brought  from  Goulburn  by  Lieutenant 
Macalister  and  a  brisk  engagement  ensued.  The  convicts, 
well  aware  what  fate  awaited  them  on  capture,  were  re- 
solved to  sell  their  lives  dearly.  They  had  obtained  ex- 
ceptionally good  cover  and  from  their  vantage  kept  up  a 
deadly  fire.  Macalister  himself,  it  is  stated,  was  struck  in  the 
arm,  causing  him  to  drop  to  the  ground  ;  but  the  lieu- 
tenant was  not  hors  de  combat  yet,  for  using  his  wounded  arm 
as  a  rest  for  his  musket  he  fired  in  return  and  succeeded  in 
hitting  the  leader  of  the  bushrangers. 

Despite  the  bravery  of  the  mounted  police  it  was  found 
necessary  to  enlist  the  services  of  the  military  before  the  gang 
could  be  routed.  Then,  with  a  flanking  movement,  police 
and  soldiers  swept  them  from  their  position  and  all  were 
captured.  Ten  public  executions  followed,  these  taking 
place  at  JBathurst.  Others  of  the  convicts  received  varying 
sentences  of  imprisonment. 

The  year  1830  which  witnessed  so  sensational  an  out- 
break is  also  notable  for  the  passing  of  the  "  Bushrangers 
Act "  (2  George  IV,  No.  10),  which  gave  considerably 
enlarged  powers  to  constables  for  the  apprehension  of  sus- 
pected persons.1  This  important  measure  no  doubt  did 
much  to  lessen  the  evil  at  which  it  was  aimed,  but  it  was 
often  the  cause  of  wrongful  imprisonment.  With  so  many 
immigrants  arriving  in  the  colony,  men  fresh  to  the  con- 
ditions of  the  new  life,  there  was  bound  to  be  frequent  mis- 
understanding. Old  settlers  have  placed  on  record  many 

1  See  Appendix  C. 

—  68  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,    1812-1846 

instances  in  which  young  fellows  who  were  genuine  "  new 
chums  "  were  arrested  by  too-zealous  constables  and  held 
for  identification.  One  such  may  be  quoted  from  a  volume 
of  reminiscences  entitled  Settlers  and  Convicts.  Says  the 
writer  :  "In  travelling  through  the  upper  part  of  the  Hunter 
I  stopped  a  few  days  at  one  of  the  principal  farms. 
During  dinner  the  first  day,  the  farm-constable  arrested  a 
traveller  on  suspicion  of  being  a  bushranger,  and  put  him  in 
confinement  in  a  private  lock-up,  built  on  the  farm.  The  man 
was  kept  there  several  days  before  any  magistrate  sat  at  the 
adjacent  court  to  hear  cases  ;  and  it  then  turned  out  that 
the  man  some  years  before  had  worked  for  that  gentleman, 
who  recognised  him  and  discharged  him.  The  poor  fellow 
said  he  had  come  free  to  the  colony  twelve  or  thirteen  years 
before,  and  was  generally  arrested  twice  every  year  under 
the  Bushrangers  Act.  He  had  made  application  in  one 
quarter  and  another  for  some  protective  document,  till  he  was 
quite  tired  and  had  quite  given  it  up.  He  had  now  made 
up  his  mind  to  it,  and  it  did  not  affect  him  as  it  did  at  first. 
He  slept  the  time  away  as  well  as  he  could,  and  was  all  the 
readier  for  work  when  he  got  out." 

A  native  once  informed  the  same  writer  that  he  had  some 
time  before  passed  seven  weeks  out  of  three  months  marching 
in  handcuffs  under  the  Bushrangers  Act.  Having  been 
born  in  the  colony  he  had  no  protective  document  whatever. 
Some  busy  farm -constable  arrested  him  on  suspicion  of  being 
a  bushranger  at  one  of  the  farthest  stations  at  Hunter's 
River,  where  he  was  looking  for  work.  After  being  taken  in 
handcuffs  to  Sydney,  over  two  hundred  miles  away,  and  dis- 
charged, he  went  to  the  Murrumbidgee  on  the  same  errand, 
where  he  was  again  arrested  and  forwarded  in  handcuffs 
to  headquarters  under  the  same  law. 

-69- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

The  "  farm-constables  "  referred  to  were  actually  prisoners 
of  the  Crown  who  were  still  serving  their  sentences,  and 
were  appointed  to  act  in  this  special  capacity  as  guards 
over  the  other  assigned  convict  servants.  It  was  a  practical 
illustration  of  the  old  adage,  "  Set  a  thief  to  catch  a  thief." 
As  any  such  convict-constable  was  sure  of  freedom,  or,  at  the 
very  least,  of  a  remission  of  his  sentence,  did  he  succeed 
in  bringing  any  bushranger  to  justice,  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
zeal  might  outrun  discretion.  The  Mounted  Police  must  not 
be  confused  with  these  guardians  of  the  law,  and  one  may 
credit  them  with  the  exercise  of  more  judgment.  At  the 
same  time,  there  is  fault  to  be  found  with  them  on  some 
points.  In  the  handling  of  their  prisoners  they  were  often 
brutal  beyond  reason.  It  was  customary  for  a  trooper  to 
handcuff  a  prisoner  to  his  stirrup-iron  and  compel  him  to  run 
with  the  horse  at  trot  or  gallop.  This  led  to  much  ill-usage, 
and  the  practice  was  discontinued  by  official  orders  after  a 
bushranger,  thus  fettered,  was  killed  by  a  horse  that  ran 
away  with  him. 

A  New  South  Wales  outlaw  of  no  little  notoriety  in  the 
forties  was  Jackey  Jackey.  From  this  peculiar  cognomen  he 
has  been  written  down  by  some  writers  as  an  aboriginal,  but 
this  is  erroneous.  Jackey  Jackey  in  real  life  was  William  John 
Westwood,  son  of  a  Kentish  farmer  in  the  "  old  country  " 
and  transported  convict  in  the  new.  On  being  shipped  out 
to  the  colony  in  1837  he  was  assigned  to  a  Mr.  King,  at 
Gidleigh,  but  eventually  absconded  and  turned  bushranger. 
For  mate  at  this  time  he  had  one  Paddy  Curran,  a  scoundrel 
who  was  hung  at  Berrima  in  1841.  After  this  loss  Jackey 
Jackey  carried  on  his  depredations  single-handed. 

A  too  daring  escapade  landed  him  at  last  in  the  clutches 
of  the  law.  The  Goulburn  Mounted  Police  were  his  captors 

—  70  — 


EARLY  BUSHRANGERS,    1812-1846 

and  they  placed  him  in  the  lock-up  at  Bargo.  From  this 
prison  he  made  his  escape,  taking  with  him  a  gun  and  pistol 
with  which  he  promptly  did  some  "  sticking  up."  A  horse 
was  soon  added  to  his  equipment,  and  he  was  next  heard 
of  at  the  Black  Horse  Inn,  on  the  Goulburn  Plains,  but  his 
career  received  a  check,  for  at  this  hostelry  he  was  over- 
powered by  the  landlord  and  the  latter 's  wife  and  daughter, 
aided  by  a  convict  servant. 

Jackey  Jackey  was  now  sentenced  to  a  life  term  and  be- 
came a  "  Cockatoo  bird."  1  He  attempted  to  escape  again 
by  swimming  from  the  island,  but  he  and  several  others 
who  made  the  attempt  were  overtaken  and  brought  back. 
Thereafter  he  was  despatched  to  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
"  chained  to  a  cable  in  the  hold  of  the  ship  "  along  with  other 
irreclaimables,  and  on  the  voyage  broke  loose  to  head  a 
futile  mutiny.  At  Port  Arthur  he  kept  up  his  record  by 
making  two  escapes  from  gaol,  on  one  occasion  being  nine 
days  in  the  bush  ;  then  came  his  final  exploit.  Sent  to 
Norfolk  Island  in  1846,  he  managed  to  organise  an  insur- 
rection among  the  convicts. 

With  some  four  hundred  at  his  back  who  had  murdered 
their  overseers,  he  led  a  march  upon  Government  House. 
Fortunately  there  was  a  strong  body  of  soldiers  on  the  island, 
and  the  officers  were  men  of  courage  and  resource.  The  rebels 
had  not  proceeded  far  when  they  were  met  by  a  charge  which 
broke  up  their  ranks  and  threw  them  into  confusion.  Jackey 
Jackey's  following  melted  away  before  he  could  re-form  them, 
and  he  was  speedily  captured.  His  execution,  with  that  of 
several  other  principals,  put  an  end  to  risings  among  the 
Norfolk  Island  convicts. 

1  A  prisoner  on  Cockatoo  Island,  in  the  Parramatta  River,  N.S.W. 
Many  of^the  worst  characters  were  sent  thither. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE   RUSH  FOE   GOLD. — I 
1851 

A  new  era — First  discoveries^ — Count  Strzlecki's  reports — Clarke  and 
Murchison — The  Daisy  Hill  nugget — Edward  Hammond  Hargraves — 
At  the  Californian  diggings — Prospecting  in  the  Blue  Mountains — 
Summerhill  Creek — The  "  rush  "  begins — Regulations  and  pre- 
cautions— The  Mounted  Police — The  exodus  from  Port  Phillip — A 
Gold  Discovery  Committee — Victorian  discoveries — James  Esmond — 
Ballarat  goldfields — Mount  Alexander — Bendigo — Undesirable  ele- 
ments— The  Influx  of  Criminals  Prevention  Act — Duties  of  the 
police — Mr.  William  Mitchell  appointed  Commissioner — Dodging  the 
"  Joeys  " — A  typical  scene — Ex-Superintendent  Brennan — The  bush- 
rangers outwitted — Another  story  of  Gardiner. 

THE  opening  up  of  the  goldfields  in  New  South  Wales 
and  Victoria  marked  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the 
Mounted  Police.  Not  only  was  the  scope  of  their  work 
enlarged  by  the  necessity  for  supervising  mining  camps 
and  enforcing  Government  regulations  ;  the  sudden  extra- 
ordinary development  of  the  diggings  was  responsible  for 
the  force  being  placed  on  an  entirely  different  basis.  The 
Lambing  Flat  riots  and  other  disturbances,  to  which  refer- 
ence has  been  already  made,  awakened  the  authorities  to  the 
fact  that  new  conditions  had  arisen  which  demanded  states- 
manlike methods.  It  is  important,  therefore,  to  note  how 
this  state  of  affairs  was  brought  about. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  New  South  Wales  properly  dates 
from  the  valuable  finds  made  by  Mr.  Edward  Hammond 

—  72  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1851 

Hargraves  in  1851.  But  the  existence  of  the  precious  metal 
was  known  long  before  this.  Convicts  while  at  work  mak- 
ing roads  through  the  bush  had  unearthed  nuggets,  and  it  is 
stated  that  they  were  compelled  to  keep  silence  on  the  matter 
for  fear  that  the  news  might  unsettle  the  population  and 
disturb  the  industries  of  the  country.  In  1823  an  Assistant 
Surveyor,  named  McBrian,  whilst  examining  the  Fish  River, 
some  fifteen  miles  east  of  Bathurst,  noted  in  his  field-book  : 
"  At  8  chains  50  links  to  river  and  marked  gum-tree,  found 
numerous  particles  of  gold  in  the  sand  and  in  the  hills  con- 
venient to  the  river."  This  evidence  of  a  goldfield  in  the 
Bathurst  district  was  confirmed  later  (in  1839)  by  Count  Paul 
Strzlecki,  a  distinguished  geologist  and  mineralogist.  He 
found  gold-bearing  quartz  in  the  Vale  of  Clwydd,  in  the  Blue 
Mountains,  and  communicated  the  intelligence  to  the 
Government  ;  but,  being  fearful  of  disastrous  consequences 
arising  from  the  discovery  being  made  known  (there  were 
45,000  convicts  in  the  colonies),  Sir  George  Cripps  imposed 
secrecy  upon  the  Count.  Strzlecki  accordingly  omitted 
mention  of  the  fact  in  the  book  on  New  South  Wales  which 
he  subsequently  published. 

From  that  time  on,  however,  explorer  after  explorer 
brought  back  tidings  of  gold  in  and  near  the  ranges.  Of  these 
pioneers  the  Rev.  W.  B.  Clarke  was  undoubtedly  the  first  to 
proclaim  on  true  scientific  grounds  the  "  probable  auriferous 
veins  of  Australia."  Between  1842  and  1847  he  found  indi- 
cations of  gold  in  several  places  and  made  public  the  results 
of  his  investigations.  At  the  same  time  we  find  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison  lecturing  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in 
London  on  the  striking  resemblance  between  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains chain  in  Australia  and  that  of  the  Ural  in  Russia,  the 
similarity  leading  him  to  predict  the  presence  of  gold  in  the 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

former.  He  even  went  so  far  as  to  recommend  Cornish  tin- 
minerS|Who  wanted  employment  to  emigrate  to  New  South 
Wales  and  turn  gold-seekers.  That  gold  was  actually  there 
was  proved  again  at  Daisy  Hill,  in  Victoria,  where  one, 
Thomas  Chapman,  happened  on  a  nugget  weighing  16 
ounces.  This  was  in  1849,  and  the  lucky  prospector  was  so 
afraid  of  the  Government's  disapproval  that  after  selling  his 
find  to  a  Melbourne  tradesman  he  fled  to  Sydney  !  His  fears 
were  not  groundless,  perhaps,  for  Mr.  Latrobe,  the  Super- 
intendent of  Port  Phillip,  afterwards  sent  an  officer  with  a 
detachment  of  native  mounted  police  to  that  same  Daisy 
Hill  to  prohibit  any  one  digging  for  gold. 

The  year  1849  witnessed  the  great  gold-rush  to  Cali- 
fornia, a  rush,  by  the  way,  in  which  hundreds  of  New  South 
Wales  colonists  joined,  ignorant  of  the  wealth  that  lay 
untouched  at  their  very  doors.  This  event  was  of  great 
importance  in  itself,  but  greater  in  that  it  provided  the  key 
by  means  of  which  Australia's  riches  were  at  last  unlocked. 
The  story  of  Hargraves  and  his  discoveries  is  one  of  the 
romances  of  our  own  times. 

When  news  first  came  of  the  great  finds  in  California, 
Hargraves  was  living  quietly  as  a  squatter  a  few  miles  out  of 
Bathurst.  He  had  done  well  for  himself  until  droughts  and 
floods  brought  disaster  in  their  train  and  a  great  part  of  his 
fortune  disappeared.  In  the  four  years  after  1 844  numbers 
of  Australian  farmers  suffered  from  these  calamities.  It  was 
in  the  hope  of  rehabilitating  himself  that  Hargraves,  like 
many  others,  set  off  for  the  Eldorado  of  the  Pacific  slope. 
He  took  ship  to  San  Francisco  and  started  out  prospecting 
in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento.  Two  years  were  thus  spent 
with  varying  fortune,  Hargraves  at  the  end  having  little  cause 
for  satisfaction  with  his  change.  But  if  Calif ornia  was  slow 

—  74  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1851 

to  yield  him  wealth  it  did  him  one  good  turn.  It  sent  his 
thoughts  chasing  back  to  the  rugged  gullies  of  the  Macquarie 
in  his  own  land.  The  conviction  formed  in  his  mind  that 
New  South  Wales  contained  a  similar  gold-bearing  region. 

Hargraves  was  no  mere  dreamer,  he  was  a  practical  miner. 
A  thorough  examination  of  the  rock  strata  in  the  Sacramento 
district  made  it  clear  to  him  that  it  was  of  the  same  formation 
as  that  in  certain  parts  of  New  South  Wales.  The  soil,  too, 
was  very  similar.  Once  this  belief  in  a  probable  Australian 
goldfield  had  taken  hold  of  him,  he  could  not  shake  it  off. 
His  mate,  also  from  the  Blue  Mountains,  was  inclined  to 
ridicule  the  idea,  pointing  out  that  geologists  had  already 
examined  and  reported  upon  those  very  gullies  and  creeks 
which  he  credited  with  hidden  treasure.  Why  give  up  a  sub- 
stance for  a  shadow  ?  he  urged.  Hargraves  in  return  argued 
that  the  expeditions  of  Strzlecki  and  other  geologists  had 
been  made  purely  for  scientific  purposes,  and  that  it  required 
men  with  expert  mining  knowledge  to  recognise  and  pro- 
perly appraise  a  goldfield.  "  That  there  is  payable  gold  out 
there  in  the  mountains,"  he  said,  "I'll  stake  my  soul !  And 
I'm  going  back  to  find  it !  " 

Hargraves  went  back,  and  alone.  His  mate,  unconvinced, 
stuck  to  the  Californian  diggings.  On  reaching  Sydney  in 
January  of  1851  the  returned,  gold-seeker  raised  just  enough 
money  to  provide  himself  with  a  horse  and  provisions,  and 
started  out  on  a  journey  through  the  ranges.  The  llth  of 
February  found  him  at  an  inn  situated  on  one  of  the  nearer 
slopes.  Here  he  stopped,  the  landlady  promising  him  that 
her  son  should  guide  him  to  the  creeks  in  the  neighbourhood. 
The  next  day  Hargraves  was  conducted  to  Summerhill 
Creek,  where  he  found  his  expectations  realised.  With  pick 
and  trowel  and  washing  pan  he  prospected  a  great  part  of 

—  75  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  water-course,  each  trial  giving  palpable  evidence  of  gold. 
He  felt  he  was  on  the  brink  of  a  great  discovery,  as  his  record 
in  his  note-book  bears  witness.  For  many  weeks  after 
Hargraves  devoted  himself  to  prospecting  the  creeks  and 
gullies  all  around,  until  he  was  satisfied  that  he  had  actually 
found  an  extensive  gold-bearing  region.  Then,  with  some 
pride  and  exultation,  he  hastened  to  inform  the  Government 
of  his  discoveries. 

At  the  first  Hargraves  was  treated  as  a  visionary,  but  by 
dint  of  perseverance  he  obtained  recognition  from  the 
Colonial  Secretary,  Mr.  Deas  Thompson,  and  a  guarantee  of 
reward  if  his  story  proved  to  be  true. 1  A  Government  Sur- 
veyor, who  was  instructed  to  proceed  to  the  Summerhill 
Creek  district,  returned  an  enthusiastic  report,  confirming 
Hargraves'  assertions.  The  authorities  were  still  doubtful  of 
the  wisdom  of  proclaiming  a  goldfield  in  New  South  Wales, 
having  in  their  mind's  eye  the  wild  scenes  that  had  been  en- 
acted in  Calif  ornia  ;  but  they  at  last  consented  to  a  trial  being 
made.  In  May  a  body  of  diggers,  to  the  number  of  a  thou- 
sand, went  up  to  the  field  with  Hargraves,  and  the  first 
mining  camp  in  Australia  was  formed.  That  was  the  begin- 
ning. In  a  little  while  news  of  the  riches  to  be  won  from  the 
mountains  spread  far  and  wide  through  the  colony,  and  a  wild 
rush  for  claims  took  place.2  Men  of  every  rank  and  pro- 
fession flocked  to  the  Turon  Gully,  to  Lewis  Ponds  and  other 
points,  to  the  material  loss  of  many  industries.  In  the  towns 

1  Hargraves'  reward  was  £500,  but  this  was  subsequently  increased 
by  the  New  South  Wales  and  Victorian  Governments  to  £15,000.  In  1877 
he  was  voted  a  pension  of  £250  per  annum. 

2  The  sensational  find  of  Dr.  Kerr  may  be  cited  as  one  among  many. 
A  blackfellow  on  Kerr's  station  near  the  Turon  called  his  master's  [atten- 
tion to  some  glittering  rock,  which  was  promptly  broken  up.  From  the 
quartz  and  gold  thus  released,  160  Ibs.  of  pure  gold  was  obtained,  the  whole 
realizing  £4,160. 

-76- 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1851 

and  among  the  squatters,  great  apprehension  was  felt,  owing 
to  the  scarcity  of  labour,  and  the  Government  was  approached 
with  a  view  to  closing  the  diggings.  The  Governor-General, 
Sir  Charles  Fitzroy,  was  man  of  sense  enough  to  see  that  he 
might  as  well  endeavour  "  to  stop  the  influx  of  the  tide." 
He  wisely  directed  his  attention  to  controlling  the  goldfields, 
and  drawing  up  regulations  for  their  proper  establishment. 

The  first  step  to  be  taken  was  to  proclaim  that  gold  was 
the  property  of  the  Crown  and  that  licences  must  be  procured 
by  miners.1  In  the  next  place  a  body  of  foot  and  mounted 
police  was  detached  for  duty  in  the  new  fields.  On 
23rd  May,  1851,  a  Government  Order  appeared,  comprising 
clauses  to  the  following  effect :  Digging  was  prohibited 
after  1st  June,  without  a  licence  ;  "  For  the  present,  and 
pending  further  proof  of  the  extent  of  the  goldfield,"  the 
licence  fee  was  to  be  fixed  at  thirty  shillings  per  month ; 
no  person  should  be  eligible  to  dig  for  gold  unless  he  could 
produce  a  certificate  of  discharge,  or  prove  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Commissioner  that  he  was  not  a  person  improperly 
absent  from  hired  service  ;  rules  adjusting  extent  and  posi- 


1  The  form  of  the  licence,  which  varied  slightly  in  wording  from  time 
to  time,  was  as  follows  : — 

GOLD  LICENCE. 

No 185.... 

The  bearer having  paid  me  the  sum  of on  account 

of  the  territorial  revenue,  I  hereby  license  him  to  dig,  search  for,  and  re- 
move gold  on  and  from  any  such  lands  within  the as  I  shall 

assign  to  him  for  that  purpose  during  the  month  of 185....,  not 

within  half  a  mile  of  any  head  station. 

This  licence  is  not  transferable,  and  must  be  produced  whenever  de- 
manded by  me  or  any  other  person  acting  under  the  authority  of  the 
Government. 

(Signed)  A.  B. 

Commissioner. 

This  licence  is  to  be  carried  on  the  person,  to  be  produced  whenever 
demanded  by  any  Commissioner,  Peace  Officer,  or  other  duly  authorised 
person,  and  is  not  transferable. 

—  77  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

tion  of  land  to  be  covered  by  each  licence,  and  for  the  pre- 
vention of  confusion,  should  be  the  subject  of  early  regulation. 
It  was  provided  by  Mr.  Deas  Thompson  that  the  revenue 
arising  from  the  issue  of  licences  should  be  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Colonial  Government  to  meet  the  extraordinary 
expenditure  incurred  by  this  new  development. 

That  a  corps  of  mounted  police  could  be  formed  and 
kept  up  to  the  required  strength  for  service  on  the  goldfields 
may  well  be  wondered  at  in  the  light  of  the  poor  pay  offered 
and  the  tempting  inducements  to  desert.  At  the  Turon,  in 
1851,  a  sergeant  received  (with  provisions)  85.  $d.  per  day, 
and  a  trooper  85.  3d.  It  speaks  highly  for  the  character  of 
the  men  that  they  remained  loyal  to  their  oath  with  very 
few  exceptions.  While  people  of  all  professions  and  trades 
were  deserting  $heir  employment  in  towns,  and  sailors  were 
running  away  from  their  vessels  in  harbour,  to  pick  up  ready- 
made  fortunes  on  the  goldfields,  the  police  sat  tight.  Many 
of  them,  it  should  be  said,  were  old  hands,  troopers  who  had 
served  the  Queen  in  line  regiments  previous  to  joining  the 
mounted  police  of  the  colony.  In  this  fine  material  the 
authorities  had  a  force  far  superior  to  the  Mounted  Border 
Police,  which  had  been  formed  in  the  squatting  districts 
and  since  disbanded.  Less  care  had  been  taken  in  the  com- 
position of  the  latter  body. 

Owing  to  the  Colonial  Secretary's  care  in  drafting  a  scheme 
for  the  working  of  the  fields,  comparatively  little  difficulty 
was  experienced  from  the  outset.  The  precautions  for 
keeping  order,  too,  were  rendered  easier  by  the  nature  of  the 
population.  The  majority  of  the  miners  were  of  the  genuine 
kind,  colonial  born,  and  amenable  to  discipline.  As  they  were 
scattered  broadcast  over  several  hundreds  of  miles  along 
the  main  range  they  were  better  placed  for  police  supervision 

-78- 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1851 

than  if  they  had  been  compressed  into  one  small  area.  But 
one  disorder  of  any  magnitude  occurred.  This  was  on  the 
Turon  goldfield,  where  a  large  number  of  diggers  refused 
to  pay  the  licence  fee.  Four  hundred  or  more  of  them  armed 
in  readiness  to  resist  the  authorities  by  force,  but  on  a 
strong  body  of  mounted  police  and  soldiers  being  dispatched 
to  the  scene  the  rioters  lost  heart  and  no  further  opposition 
was  encountered. 

The  discovery  of  gold  in  Victoria  followed  close  upon  that 
in  the  sister  colony.  So  many  hundreds  of  men  had  deserted 
the  Port  Phillip  district  for  the  diggings,  and  depleted  it  of 
population  at  a  critical  period  in  its  history,1  that  it  was  felt 
incumbent  to  provide  a  counter-attraction.  At  a  public 
meeting  held  in  Melbourne  in  1851  a  "  Gold  Discovery 
Committee  "  was  formed  to  encourage  search  for  payable 
goldfields  within  the  State  boundaries.  A  reward  of  £200 
was  offered  to  the  first  who  discovered  a  field  within  a  couple 
of  hundred  miles  of  Melbourne. 

Gold-seekers  were  quick  to  set  to  work.  The  precious 
metal  had  been  found  already  in  some  places,  at  Smythesdale 
in  1849,  at  Clunes  in  the  following  year,  and  in  the  Pyrenees 
by  Dr.  Bruhn,  a  German  mineralogist.  A  discovery  that 
made  some  stir  was  that  of  James  Esmond,  a  one-time  driver 
of  the  mail-coach  between  Buninyong  and  Horsham,  in  the 
vicinity  of  Ballarat.  Like  Hargraves,  Esmond  had  tried  his 
luck  at  the  Calif  ornian  diggings  and,  meeting  with  no  success, 
had  returned  home  in  the  same  ship  as  the  New  South  Wales 
man.  To  obtain  a  living  he  became  a  bushman  on  a  station 
in  the  Pyrenees,  where  he  chanced,  one  day,  to  meet  Dr. 
Bruhn.  The  latter  talked  so  glowingly  of  the  prospects  of 

1  The  separation  of  Port  Phillip  from  New  South  Wales,  and  its  procla- 
mation as  the  colony  of  Victoria,  was  on  the  point  of  accomplishment. 

—  79  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

gold-finding  in  that  district  that  Esmond  and  a  companion 
who  shared  his  hut  determined  to  go  a-venturing.  What 
clinched  the  matter  was  the  sight  of  some  quartz  specimens 
which  the  Doctor  exhibited. 

The  two  men  "  struck  rich  "  at  their  first  attempt.  Deep 
Creek,  a  small  stream  running  into  the  Loddon  River,  yielded 
gold  in  good  quantities,  and  early  in  July  a  little  band  of 
diggers  were  hard  at  work  with  him  developing  the  find. 
Esmond's  discovery,  however,  proved  to  be  an  alluvial  de- 
posit which  in  time  became  exhausted.  This  brought  disap- 
pointment, but  in  the  meantime  other  prospectors  had  been 
busy,  andjiew  fields  were  being  opened  up.  Gold  was  found 
near  the  Yarra  River,  only  a  few  miles  from  Melbourne. 
More  important  still,  it  was  reported  from  Buninyong,  where  a 
Mr.  Hiscock  had  some  remarkable  specimens  to  show.  After 
Buninyong  came  the  revelation  of  the  Golden  Point  and 
Specimen  Gully  finds,  these  leading  immediately  to  the  open- 
ing of  the  Ballarat  goldfields. 

The  hidden  riches  of  Victoria  were  laid  bare  at  last.  No 
more  did  the  eager  gold-seekers  betake  themselves  over  the 
border  into  New  South  Wales  ;  there  were  more  alluring 
opportunities  for  wealth  close  at  hand.  Ballarat  received  its 
"  rush  "  in  August  of  1851.  In  the  following  month,  so 
quickly  did  events  move,  Mount  Alexander  leapt  into  notor- 
iety, and  three  weeks  later  the  golden  harvest  of  Bendigo  was 
announced,  a  harvest  which  was  to  eclipse  all  others  hi 
value. 

Within  a  brief  period  the  new  goldfields  were  literally 
swarming  with  people.  Diggers  to  the  number  of  eighty 
thousand  spread  themselves  over  Ballarat,  Mount  Alexander 
and  Bendigo,  bringing  with  them  many  elements  which, 
unfortunately,  did  not  promise  well  for  the  future.  Of  the 

—  80  — 


"  PANNING  "    FOR    GOLD. 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,  1861 

65,000  immigrants  who  landed  in  Melbourne  during  the 
first  year  of  the  gold-rush  a  large  proportion  were  undesirables 
— ex-convicts  from  Van  Diemen's  Land  (soon  to  be  known  as 
Tasmania) ;  adventurers  of  all  nations,  ripe  for  any  chance  to 
batten  on  the  profits  of  others  ;  and  the  rag-tag-and-bob- 
tail  of  the  Western  American  diggings.  It  was  a  motley  crowd, 
and  the  Victorian  Government  had  good  reason  to  view  it  with 
apprehension.  As  a  safeguard  against  an  illimitable  inrush 
of  ex-convicts  an  "  Influx  of  Criminals  Prevention  Act  " 
was  hastily  passed  in  1852.  By  this  measure  everyone 
coming  into  the  state  from  Van  Diemen's  Land  was  required 
to  prove  that  he  was  not  a  convict  of  less  than  three  years' 
freedom,  otherwise  he  was  refused  permission  to  land.  A 
heavy  fine  was  the  penalty  for  any  ship's  captain  who 
brought  over  a  convict  to  any  Victorian  port.  But  this  pre- 
cautionary legislation  was  somewhat  late  in  the  day.  Too 
many  of  the  scourings  of  Van  Diemen's  Land  had  already 
crossed  the  narrow  straits. 

To  enforce  the  mining  laws — based  on  those  formulated  by 
Mr.  Deas  Thompson  in  New  South  Wales — Mr.  Latrobe, 
now  Lieutenant-Governor,  had  but  a  small  body  of  native 
mounted  police  at  his  command.  The  duties  of  the  black 
troopers,  or  "  Joes,"  l  as  they  were  commonly  called,  were 
by  no  means  light.  In  addition  to  ordinary  police  work,  the 
maintenance  of  law  and  order  in  a  mixed  community,  they 
had  to  constantly  patrol  the  diggings  and  inspect  mining 
licences,  always  a  difficult  and  unpopular  task.  Many  of  the 
miners  tried  to  evade  what  they  considered  to  be  an  impo- 
sition and  an  annoyance,  while  others,  for  various  reasons 
of  ineligibility,  had  been  unable  to  obtain  licences.  One 

1  This  cant  term  for  the  police  owes  its  origin  to  the  fact  that  official 
mandates  were  signed  "  Joseph  Charles  Latrobe." 

—  8l  —  G 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

source  of  irritation  was  the  insertion  of  a  clause  in  the  licence 
enjoining  Sunday  observance  on  the  fields. 

To  provide  a  more  efficient  force  of  police  for  the  gold- 
fields  Mr.  Latrobe  appointed  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  William 
Mitchell  to  the  Chief  Commissionership.  This  officer  was 
successful  to  a  great  degree,  and  was  the  initiator  of  the  cadet 
system,  to  which  reference  will  be  made  later.  At  this 
period,  1852,  there  were  two  constabulary  forces  in  Victoria, 
the  County  of  Bourke  Police  (under  that  Captain  Sturt  who 
tracked  down  the  Nelson  goldship  pirates),  and  the  native 
Goldfields  Police  (under  Captain  Mair).  It  was  Mitchell's 
proposal  to  combine  these  bodies  into  one,  and  this  was  in 
due  course  carried  out. 

The  first  open  opposition  to  the  licence  fee  was  made  at 
Golden  Point  towards  the  end  of  1852,  when  the  Govern- 
ment had  announced  that  free  digging  would  be  permitted 
for  the  month  of  September.  The  object  in  view  was  the 
encouragement  of  what  was  then  a  new  field.  On  the  Gold 
Commissioners  proceeding  to  these  claims,  however,  they 
gathered  that  the  yield  had  been  an  exceedingly  rich  one,  and, 
wisely  or  unwisely,  they  attempted  to  levy  a  licence  fee  of 
fifteen  shillings,  half  the  customary  amount.  A  storm 
of  indignation  at  once  broke  out.  With  a  man  named 
Swindells  as  leader,  the  miners  refused  to  comply  with  the 
demand.  Violent  meetings  were  held,  one  digger  who  had 
paid  the  tax  was  roughly  treated,  and  for  a  time  it  looked  as 
if  a  riot  would  follow.  Happily,  better  counsels  prevailed, 
and  eventually  the  Government  had  its  way. 

An  entertaining  description  of  this  tax-collecting  at  Bal- 
larat  is  given  by  the  author  of  Life  in  Victoria,  who  himself 
figured  in  many  such  scenes.  He  says  : — 

"  W shouted  down,  *  Come  up,  boys — come  along 

—  82  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1851 

quick  ;  the  game  is  started  !  '  And  as  I  was  being  hoisted 
up  I  heard  the  swelling  uproar  and  the  loud  chorus  of  '  Joes  ' 
from  every  side.  As  I  gained  the  surface  everybody  was  in 
commotion — diggers  with  their  licences  lowering  down  their 
mates  without  them  ;  some,  with  folded  arms,  cursing  the 
system  and  damning  the  Government ;  others  stealing  away 
like  hares  when  hounds  are  in  the  neighbourhood.  Several 
'  tally-ho 'd,'  bursting  from  points  where  they  could  escape 
arrest,  while  '  Joe  !  Joe  !  Joe  !  Joe  !  Joe  !  Joe  !  '  resounded 
on  all  sides  ;  ]  the  half-clad  Amazons  running  up  the  hill 
slopes,  like  so  many  bearers  of  the  '  fiery  cross,'  to  spread 
to  the  neighbouring  gullies  the  commencement  of  the  police 
foray.  The  police,  acting  on  a  preconcerted  plan  of  attack, 
kept  closing  in  upon  their  prey  :  the  mounted  portion,  under 
the  commander-in-chief,  occupying  commanding  positions 
on  the  elevated  ranges  to  intercept  escape  or  retreat.  A 
strong  body  of  the  foot  force,  fully  armed,  swept  down  the 
gully  in  extended  line,  attended  by  a  corps  of  light  infantry 
'  traps  '  in  loose  attire,  like  greyhounds  in  the  slip,  ready  to 
rush  from  the  leash  as  the  quarry  started.  But  the  orders  of 
the  officers  could  not  be  heard  from  the  loud  and  continuous 
roars  of  '  Joe  !  Joe  !  Joe  !  ' — '  Curse  the  Government ! — 
the  beaks,  the  traps,  Commissioners,  and  all '  — '  the 
robbers,' — 'the  bushrangers,'  and  every  vile  epithet  that 
could  be  remembered,  almost  into  their  ears. 

"  At  length  the  excitement  got  perfectly  wild  as  a  smart 
fellow,  closely  pursued,  took  a  line  of  the  gully  cut  up  with 
yawning  holes,  from  which  the  cross  planks  had  been 
purposely  removed  ;  every  extraordinary  spring  just  carry- 
ing him  beyond  the  grasp  of  capture,  his  tracks  being  filled 
the  instant  he  left  them,  and  the  outstretched  arm  of  the 
police  within  an  inch  of  seizure  in  the  following  leap.  I 

-83- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

myself  was  strangely  inoculated  with  the  nervous  quiver  of 
excitement,  and  I  think  I  gave  an  involuntary  cheer  as  the 
game  and  mettle  of  the  digger  began  to  tell.  But  there 
arose  a  terrific  menacing  outcry  of  '  Shame  !  shame  ! — 
treachery  ! — meanness  !  '  which  a  glance  in  the  direction  of 
the  general  gaze  showed  me  was  caused  by  a  charge  of  the 
mounted  men  on  the  high  ground  to  head  back  the  poor 
fugitive.  I  really  thought  a  conflict  would  have  ensued, 
for  there  was  a  mad  rush  to  the  point  where  the  collision 
was  likely  to  take  place,  and  fierce  vows  of  vengeance 
registered  by  many  a  stalwart  fellow  who  bounded  past  me 
to  join  in  the  fray.  A  moment  after  the  mounted  men 
wheeled  at  a  sharp  angle,  and  a  fresh  shout  arose  as  another 
smart  young  fellow  flew  before  them  with  almost  super- 
natural fleetness,  like  a  fresh  hare  started  as  the  hunted  one 
was  on  the  point  of  being  run  down.  I  marvelled  to  see 
him  keep  the  unbroken  ground,  with  the  gully  at  his  side 
impracticable  for  cavalry  ;  but  no,  he  made  straight  on  for 
a  bunch  of  tents  with  a  speed  I  never  saw  equalled  by  a 
pedestrian.  It  was  even  betting,  too,  that  he  would  have 
reached  the  screen  first,  when  lo  !  he  stopped  short  so  sud- 
denly as  only  just  to  escape  being  ridden  down  by  the  Com- 
missioner— the  Cardigan  of  the  charge — who  seized  him  by 
the  shirt  collar  in  passing. 

"  The  rush  of  diggers  now  became  diverted  to  the  scene  of 
capture.  I  hurried  forward  there,  too,  although  fearing  I 
should  witness  the  shedding  of  blood  and  the  sacrifice  of 
human  life.  But  as  I  approached  I  was  agreeably  disap- 
pointed at  hearing  loud  roars  of  laughter  and  jeering  out- 
bursts of  '  Joe  !  Joe  !  '  amidst  which  the  crowd  opened  out  a 
passage  for  the  crestfallen  heroes,  who  rode  away  under  such 
a  salute  of  opprobrious  epithets  as  I  never  heard  before,  for 

-84- 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1851 

the  young  fellow  who  led  them  the  idle  chase  stopped  short 
the  moment  he  saw  the  real  fugitive  was  safe,  coolly  inquir- 
ing of  his  captor  '  What  crime  he  was  guilty  of,  to  be  hunted 
like  a  felon  ?  '  '  Your  licence,  you  scoundrel !  '  was  the 
curt  reply.  Upon  which  he  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and 
pulled  out  the  document,  to  the  ineffable  disgust  of  the 
police,  who  in  grasping  at  the  shadow  had  lost  the  substance." 

The  merry  game  of  "  Joe-dodging  "  had  several  varia- 
tions. Sometimes  the  police  would  be  lured  below  ground, 
whence  they  rarely  emerged  without  having  had  to  crawl 
through  wet,  muddy  "  drives,"  to  the  serious  detriment  of 
their  clothes  and  persons.  But  that  is  only  one  side  of  the 
shield.  Often  enough  the  constables  were  successful  in 
running  down  the  non-licence  holders,  and  had  the  satis- 
faction of  marching  off  their  prisoners  for  judgment.  The 
usual  fine,  when  a  genuine  digger  was  concerned,  amounted 
to  £5  ;  in  other  cases  terms  of  imprisonment  were  imposed. 

More  serious  work  awaited  the  mounted  police  when,  as 
was  frequently  the  case,  acts  of  bushranging  were  reported. 
The  gold  escorts  which  left  the  fields  en  route  for  Melbourne 
offered  strong  temptations  to  the  lawless  element.  Such  a 
train  would  carry  many  thousands  of  ounces  of  gold,  for  the 
protection  of  which,  often  enough,  only  a  handful  of  troopers 
could  be  spared.  In  dealing  with  Gardiner  and  other 
notorious  raiders  in  a  later  chapter  some  account  of  notable 
gold-train  "  stick-ups  "  will  be  given.  An  instance  of  an 
attempt  that  failed  in  this  connection  occurs  to  us,  and  as 
the  redoubtable  Gardiner  figures  in  it  the  story  is  worth 
telling.  Our  informant  is  Ex-Superintendent  Martin  Bren- 
nan,  of  the  New  South  Wales  Police,  an  officer  who  began 
his  service  in  the  old  days  of  the  Southern  Patrol,  under 
Captain  Zouch. 

-85- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

"  When  I  was  a  trooper,"  he  said  to  the  writer,  "  I  was 
three  years  doing  gold  escort  duty  on  the  goldfields.  On  one 
occasion  I  formed  one  of  a  party  of  four  men  in  charge  of  a 
consignment  of  specie  and  gold  dust  that  totalled  nearly 
4,000  oz.  We  were  detailed  to  convoy  it  from  the  Braid- 
wood  fields  to  Goulburn,  about  sixty  miles  distant.  When 
we  started  the  order  was  as  follows  :  I  rode  in  front  as  ad- 
vance guard,  then  came  a  trooper  leading  the  pack-horse 
laden  with  the  gold,  a  third  trooper  rode  alongside  with  a 
whip,  and  behind  was  Corporal  Stafford,  who  was  in  charge. 
All  of  us  were  armed.  We  had  been  told  to  be  exceptionally 
wary,  as  Gardiner,  the  bushranger,  was  known  to  be  in  the 
neighbourhood.  He  had  stuck  up  one  or  two  banks  some 
days  previously. 

"  The  main  road  that  we  followed  led  through  the  town- 
ship of  Tarago,  at  which  place  there  was  a  hotel.  Here  we 
intended  to  make  a  brief  halt  for  refreshment  and  rest,  and 
here  it  was  that  any  attack  contemplated  would  be  made. 
Gardiner,  I  may  say,  was  born  near  this  part  and  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  road.  As  some  precaution  against 
surprise,  therefore,  we  started  out  on  our  journey  a  full  hour 
earlier  than  had  been  arranged.  As  a  still  further  precaution 
I  suggested  to  Stafford  that  we  should  take  a  short  cut  to 
Tarago  by  way  of  Lake  Bathurst.  He  agreed,  and  I  accord- 
ingly turned  off  sharp  from  the  road  at  a  certain  point  and 
struck  into  the  bush. 

"  All  the  time,  you  may  be  sure,  I  kept  my  eyes  wide 
open,  but  when,  on  nearing  the  lake,  I  saw  a  couple  of  men 
bathing  I  felt  no  cause  for  alarm.  To  my  astonishment, 
however,  the  two  no  sooner  caught  sight  of  the  police  riding 
towards  them  than  they  promptly  rushed  from  the  water, 
seized  their  clothes  and,  nude  as  they  were,  jumped  on  their 

—  86  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1851 

horses,  which  were  tethered  close  by.  They  rode  off  at  full 
gallop.  I  spurred  after  them  immediately,  for  I  had  recog- 
nised one  of  the  men  as  Gardiner,  and  fired  off  my  pistol. 
This  weapon  was  a  clumsy  one  of  an  old  type  and,  I  remem- 
ber, made  a  noise  like  the  report  of  a  cannon  !  Then  Stafford 
called  to  me  to  come  back,  and  I  gave  up  the  chase. 

"  On  the  lake  bank  we  found  a  pair  of  riding  boots  and 
a  mackintosh,  both  of  which  articles  belonged  to  Gardiner. 
These  we  appropriated  before  continuing  our  march.  At 
Tarago  we  met  two  other  mounted  constables,  and,  without 
making  our  intended  halt,  exchanged  our  horses  for  their 
fresher  ones  in  order  to  push  on  to  Goulburn.  We  had  not 
left  the  station  at  Tarago  very  long  before  six  bushrangers, 
headed  by  Gardiner,  arrived  on  the  scene  to  bail  up  our 
escort.  But  for  once  in  his  life,  at  least,  our  worthy  friend 
was  disappointed.  We  made  good  progress  to  Goulburn 
and  so  escaped  his  clutches  !  " 

Of  Corporal  Stafford  and  Gardiner  there  is  another 
story  told  which  throws  an  interesting  sidelight  on  the  bush- 
ranger's character.  The  police  officer  had  known  Gardiner 
before  the  latter  took  to  evil  ways,  and  always  entertained 
some  regard  for  him.  Even  as  a  trooper  he  was  inclined  to 
stand  up  for  the  other,  declaring  that  he  was  not  so  black  as 
he  was  painted.  One  day  Stafford  was  in  charge  of  a  gold 
escort  when  he  was  suddenly  ordered  to  bail  up.  A  party  of 
armed  bushrangers  had  leapt  out  upon  the  police,  who  were 
three  in  number,  from  a  well-chosen  ambush. 

At  the  summons  Stafford  rode  forward,  and  recognising 
Gardiner  among  the  rest,  called  out,  "  Hallo,  Frank  !  Is 
that  you  ?  " 

"  Hallo,  Stafford  !  "  was  the  response  ;  "  so  you're 
here  ! " 

-87- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

There  was  a  quick  interchange  of  friendly  salutations,  a 
grasp  of  the  hand,  and  then  the  bushranger  drew  his  men  to 
one  side. 

"  You  can  go  on,  old  man,"  he  said,  "  all's  well." 

Gardiner  shortly  afterwards  rode  in  the  direction  of 
Stafford's  house,  and  stopped  to  tell  Mrs.  Stafford  of  the 
encounter. 

"  If  your  husband  hadn't  been  in  charge  of  the  gold,"  he 
remarked  grimly,  "  there'd  have  been  some  black  business !  " 


—  88 


a   g 


H 

s! 

in    '~ 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   BUSH  FOB  GOLD. — II 

1852-1855 

The  Nelson  gold-ship  robbery — Mounted  Police  in  pursuit — Attacks  on 
the  Government — Capture  of  the  pirates — Transportation  to  Van 
Diemen's  Land  abolished — Turbulence  on  the  goldfields — Mail-coach 
robberies — The  licence  fee  agitation — Proposed  increase  of  tax — 
More  misunderstandings — A  police  blunder — Riot  at  Forest  Creek — 
Bendigo  the  centre  of  disaffection — Resignation  of  Mr.  Latrobe — Sir 
Charles  Hotham/Governor — "  Digger-hunting  "  and  other  grievances 
— The  Eureka  Hotel  murder — Ballarat  in  ferment — Obduracy  of  the 
authorities — The  call  to  arms — Peter  Lalor — The  Eureka  stockade 
— Concessions  by  the  Government — Constitutional  changes. 

HOW  serious  was  the  menace  of  the  escapee  or  ticket-of- 
leave  man  who  made  his  way  by  hook  or  by  crook  into 
Victoria  from  Van  Diemen's  Land  was  evidenced  early  in 
1852.  Robberies,  acts  of  bushranging  and  other  exciting 
episodes  by  that  time  had  become  of  alarming  frequency  ; 
the  newspapers  chronicled  them  every  day ;  but  all  these 
incidents  were  suddenly  eclipsed  by  an  act  of  unparalleled 
daring,  an  act  that  recalls  remembrances  of  buccaneering  on 
the  Spanish  Main.  As  reported  in  the  Melbourne  Argus  of 
April  3rd  the  particulars  are  as  follows — 

Lying  off  the  lighthouse  at  Williamstown,  in  a  part  of 
Port  Phillip  Harbour  known  as  Hobson's  Bay,  was  a  gold- 
ship.  This  vessel,  the  Nelson,  had  just  come  in  from  Geelong 
with  £24,000  worth  of  gold,  and  was  shortly  to  leave  for 
London,  With  such  a  valuable  freight  it  might  have  been 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

expected  that  a  proper  watch  would  have  been  kept,  but 
this  was  not  the  case.  In  the  early  morning  of  the  2nd  a 
party  of  twenty-two  masked  men  (other  accounts  say 
sixteen)  put  off  from  the  beach  at  Sandridge  in  two  boats, 
and  with  muffled  oars  rowed  to  the  ship's  side.  There  was 
no  one  on  deck  to  hail  them  or  give  any  alarm  ;  the  pirates 
clambered  on  board  unseen  and  took  possession. 

Two  sailors  and  a  boy  who  were  found  in  the  forecastle 
were  easily  secured.  The  rest  of  the  Nelson's  crew — five 
in  all — with  the  chief  officer,  Mr.  Draper,  were  surprised  in 
their  bunks.  Each  one  of  the  robbers  was  fully  armed,  and 
resistance  was  useless  in  the  circumstances,  though  the  chief 
officer  pluckily  showed  fight.  In  a  few  minutes  the  vessel 
was  at  the  mercy  of  the  gang.  Having  seen  to  the  safe 
disposal  of  their  prisoners,  the  men  proceeded  at  once  to  the 
lazarette,  where  the  treasure  was  stowed,  and  carried  the 
boxes  to  their  boats.  Then  they  led  Mr.  Draper  and  the 
ship's  hands  to  the  plundered  store-room,  locked  them  in, 
and  decamped. 

Immediately  the  pirates  had  quitted  the  vessel's  side  a 
seaman,  who  had  evaded  capture  by  finding  a  sure  hiding- 
place,  liberated  the  prisoners.  The  chief  officer  at  once 
rowed  to  shore  to  give  the  alarm,  and  the  Water  Police  were 
soon  at  work  searching  for  the  thieves.  In  the  darkness 
not  much  could  be  done,  but  when  daylight  broke  a  boat 
stranded  on  the  beach  near  St.  Kilda  showed  where  the 
rascals  had  landed.  On  the  sand  were  the  wheel-tracks  of 
the  cart  which  had  carried  off  the  booty.  The  second  boat 
was  found  later  on  at  Williamstown. 

On  the  strength  of  this  information  Captain  Sturt,  of  the 
Melbourne  force,  set  off  with  a  body  of  mounted  police  to 
scour  the  country,  but  for  several  days  no  traces  of  the  men 

—  90  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1852-1855 

could  be  found.  For  the  better  conveyance  of  the  gold  the 
boxes  had  been  discarded,  these  being  picked  up,  empty,  on 
the  beach.  In  the  absence  of  other  clues  the  police  were  hard 
put  to  it  to  unearth  the  robbers,  and  their  non-success  gave 
the  Melbourne  press  opportunity  for  railing  at  the  Govern- 
ment's inability  to  protect  life  and  property. 

"  That  twenty-two  men,  evidently  all  sworn  to  secrecy," 
said  a  leader-writer  in  the  Argus,  "  could  meet  and  plan  such 
a  daring  robbery  among  so  limited  a  population  as  that  of 
Melbourne,  without  exciting  a  suspicion  among  the  police, 
is  strange.  Granting,  however,  that  the  cunning  of  the 
rascals  evaded  all  suspicion,  what  is  to  be  thought  of  the 
efficient  police  force  that  could  not  perceive  any  symptoms 
of  such  a  deed  while  it  was  being  executed  ?  Is  there  a 
police  force  ?  And  what  are  its  duties  if  bands  of  robbers 
can  plunder  in  this  fashion  ?  Again,  these  men  were  armed 
to  the  teeth.  It  is  shrewdly  suspected  that  they  intended 
to  attack  the  Admiral,  a  gold-ship  which  sailed  yesterday 
afternoon — a  fact  which  they  probably  did  not  know.  It 
is  perfectly  clear  that  they  were  prepared  to  perpetrate  any 
amount  of  violence,  and  to  hazard  their  lives  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  their  project." 

In  a  later  issue  of  the  paper  a  correspondent  fulminated 
against  the  authorities  in  these  terms  :  "  We  have  no 
Government.  That  is  a  fact,  as  clear  as  noonday.  What 
represents  the  Government  is  an  imaginary  will-o'-the 
wisp  ;  a  band  of  creatures  like  men,  but  actuated  only  by 
the  spirits  of  decayed  old  women.  There  is  no  safety  for 
individuals  in  their  properties  on  land  or  water  ;  day  after 
day  numbers  of  robberies  are  recorded  ;  people  are  found 
dead  in  the  street,  in  houses,  or  on  the  roads  .  .  .  some- 
thing must  immediately  be  done  to  render  life  and  property 

—  91  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

safe,  otherwise  the  thief  and  murderer  will  usurp  the  func- 
tions of  the  judge  and  magistrate  ;  crime  of  the  most  degrad- 
ing and  abominable  kind  will  reign  supreme,  and  Victoria, 
the  finest  of  the  colonies,  will  be  converted  into  a  terrestrial 
hell !  " 

Newspaper  tirades  do  not  always  voice  public  sentiment. 
That  Melbourne  people  generally  were  incensed  at  such  a 
crime  being  perpetrated  in  their  midst  was  natural,  but  the 
difficulties  encountered  by  the  police  did  not  go  unrecognised. 
Nor  were  the  "  old  women  "  of  the  Government  asleep,  as 
some  supposed,  while  the  much-abused  police  were  working 
surely  if  quietly  towards  their  end.  Within  a  week  the 
principals  of  the  Nelson  pirates  had  been  laid  by  the  heels. 
Four  men  in  all  were  arrested,  one  being  on  the  point  of 
sailing  for  [Sydney,  the  three  others  being  located  at  a 
Williamstown  inn.  They  were  duly  placed  on  trial  and  were 
sentenced  to  twenty  years'  imprisonment. 

One  important  outcome  of  this  sensational  affair  was  its 
effect  on  the  question  of  transportation.  The  Order  in 
Council  of  1840,  which  had  freed  New  South  Wales  and, 
inclusively,  Victoria  from  the  plague  of  convict  shipments, 
had  left  Van  Diemen's  Land  and  Norfolk  Island  as  the  sole 
two  penal  settlements  in  Australia.  To  the  former  of  these 
went  the  bulk  of  transported  felons.  In  the  few  years 
between  1842  and  1846  the  number  received  totalled  19,000. 
By  the  year  1851,  when  Victorians  had  cause  to  look  askance 
on  Van  Diemen's  Land  immigrants,  half  of  the  island's 
population  were  either  convicts  or  ex-convicts  who  had 
gained  freedom. 

In  Victoria  public  feeling  was  now  fully  aroused  on  this 
vital  question.  Anti-Transportation  Leagues  were  formed, 
mass  meetings  were  held  in  Melbourne  and  other  centres, 

—  92  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1852-1865 

and  resolutions  were  passed  calling  on  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment to  cease  deporting  prisoners  to  Van  Diemen's  Land, 
or  Tasmania.  At  home  Earl  Grey,  the  Colonial  Secretary, 
was  slow  to  realise  how  united  were  the  colonists  on  this 
point.  But  the  insistent  petitions  of  Victorians  and 
Tasmanians  at  length  won  the  day.  Transportation  to 
Tasmania  ceased  on  February  10th,  1853. 

In  the  meantime  the  development  of  the  goldfields  was 
proceeding  apace.  In  New  South  Wales  the  mining  camps 
were  being  conducted  in  a  fairly  orderly  manner  ;  in  Victoria 
less  settled  conditions  prevailed.  At  Bendigo,  Eagle-hawk 
Creek,  and  other  places,  there  was  considerable  turbulence, 
to  which  the  grog-shanty  and  the  dance-hall  contributed 
their  quota.  The  Mounted  Police,  including  the  black 
troopers,  already  referred  to  in  the  specially  raised  corps 
of  Gold  Police,  under  Captain  Mair,  endeavoured  to  cope 
with  the  situation  to  the  best  of  their  ability,  but  the  few- 
ness of  their  numbers  made  the  task  an  almost  impossible 
one.  More  police  were  drafted  into  the  colony  from  Tas- 
mania and  from  England,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  having 
no  military  upon  which  to  draw.  The  ever-shifting  and 
constantly  increasing  population  of  the  diggings,  however, 
at  times  baffled  the  authorities. 

In  these  early  days  of  the  goldfields  there  was  an  addi- 
tional attraction  to  the  bushranger  in  the  mail-coaches  which 
ran  between  the  diggings  and  the  towns.  Often  the  vehicles 
contained  passengers  who  carried  with  them  large  quantities 
of  gold  in  the  shape  of  nuggets  or  dust,  usually  destined  for 
the  bank.  Both  in  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria  cases  of 
"  sticking  up  "  mail-coaches  came  to  be  frequent,  and  the 
mounted  police  patrols  had  instructions  to  be  particularly 
alert  in  looking  out  for  these  gentlemen  of  the  road.  In 

—  93  — 


November  1853,  we  find  the  following  proclamation  issued 
from  the  Colonial  Secretary's  Office  in  Sydney  : — 

"  Whereas  it  has  been  represented  to  the  Government 
that  the  mails  on  certain  roads  have  been  repeatedly  robbed, 
and  it  is  considered  expedient  to  establish  a  fixed  scale  of 
Rewards,  applying  to  all  cases  of  Mail  Robberies  :  His  Ex- 
cellency the  Governor-General  directs  it  to  be  notified  that 
for  such  information,  within  six  calendar  months  after  the 
commission  of  the  offence,  as  shall  lead  to  the  apprehension 
and  conviction  of  those  implicated,  a  Reward  of  Twenty 
Pounds  will  be  paid  in  each  case  of  mail  robbery  unattended 
by  violence,  and  a  Reward  of  Fifty  Pounds  in  each  case  in 
which  the  guilty  parties  have  been  armed  and  have  used 
violence,  and  that  in  addition  to  the  above  Rewards,  re- 
spectively, application  will  be  made  to  Her  Majesty  for  the 
allowance  of  a  Conditional  Pardon  to  the  person  giving  the 
information,  if  a  prisoner  of  the  Crown." 

"  By  His  Excellency's  Command. 

"  E.  DBAS  THOMPSON." 

On  the  Victorian  goldfields  the  monthly  licence  fee 
formed  the  principal  bone  of  contention  between  miners  and 
Government.  It  was  regarded  as  a  severe  tax  by  the  major- 
ity, especially  as  it  was  extended  to  every  individual  who 
resided  on  a  goldfield,  whether  digger  or  store-keeper,  and 
the  methods  employed  for  its  collection  only  served  to 
heighten  opposition.  In  the  execution  of  their  duty  the 
police  were  often  provoked  into  taking  harsh  measures. 
Digger  hunts  had  their  tragic  as  well  as  their  humorous  side, 
and  if  tents  were  burnt  down  and  men  too  roughly  handled 
an  outburst  of  indignation  and  protest  was  only  to  be  ex- 
pected. A  sight  too  frequently  seen,  and  one  that  caused 

—  94  — 


THE   RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1862-1855 

much  resentment,  was  that  of  handcuffed  miners  chained 
to  trees  pending  their  examination  for  the  non-production 
of  licences.  As  there  were  no  lock-ups  on  the  diggings,  the 
police  were  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  this  rough  method. 
Several  prisoners  could  be  secured  by  their  "  darbies  "  to 
one  chain  at  a  time.  Afterwards  an  attempt  was  made  to 
fit  up  temporary  cells  of  corrugated  iron,  but  these  "  Dutch 
ovens  "  or  "  sardine  boxes,"  as  they  were  variously  termed 
became  unbearable  in  the  heat  of  summer  nights.  The  chain 
was  often  welcomed  as  a  relief. 

As  if  there  were  not  already  sufficient  irritation  on  this 
score,  Governor  Latrobe's  executive  council  now  proposed 
to  increase  the  licence  fee  to  £3,  double  the  original  amount. 
The  cost  of  collection  so  far  had  exceeded  the  value  of  the 
revenue  thus  obtained,1  and  the  proved  richness  of  the  mines 
seemed  to  warrant  a  larger  return.  It  was  fondly  hoped, 
also,  that  many  of  the  less  fortunate  diggers  would  become 
discouraged  and  would  make  their  way  back  to  the  settle- 
ments, which  were  practically  denuded  of  labour.  The 
paucity  of  workers,  indeed,  in  the  towns,  on  the  farms,  and 
stock  stations,  was  so  serious  that  prices  had  risen  to  a 
ruinous  height.  With  rash  haste  the  Government  promul- 
gated the  new  order,  the  official  Gazette  of  December,  1851, 
announcing  that  from  the  commencement  of  the  following 
year  the  increased  fee  of  £3  would  be  imposed. 

Victorians  who  remember  those  early  days  will  easily 
recall  to  mind  the  storm  of  protest  that  immediately  uprose. 
The  miners  were  unanimous  in  denouncing  this  fresh  im- 
position and  in  their  determination  to  resist  it  by  force  if 

1  In  1853,  replying  to  a  deputation  of  Bendigo  and  Castlemaine  miners* 
Governor  Latrobe  stated  that  up  to  that  time  the  cost  of  administering  the 
goldfields  had  amounted  to  £600,000,  the  revenue  from  licence  fees  and 
gold  export  duty  having  been  little  more  than  £460,000. 

—  95  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

necessary.  At  meeting  after  meeting  inflammatory  speeches 
were  delivered,  until  the  gravity  of  the  situation  was  brought 
home  to  the  Council.  Within  two  or  three  weeks  the 
Government  wavered  and  was  lost.  The  objectionable 
notice  was  cancelled,  and  the  agitation  for  the  time  subsided. 

Early  in  1852  a  new  cloud  appeared  on  the  horizon. 
Acting  in  concert  with  the  Colonial  Office  in  London,  the 
Governor  put  forward  a  proposal  that  in  lieu  of  the  obnoxious 
licence  fee  an  export  duty  on  gold  should  be  substituted, 
a  merely  nominal  fee  being  exacted  to  ensure  the  proper 
registration  of  qualified  miners.  This  not  only  seemed  to 
offer  a  fairer  form  of  taxation,  but  possessed  the  advantage 
of  simplifying  the  work  of  collection.  All  such  royalties 
would  be  dealt  with  in  Melbourne,  thus  obviating  the  inces- 
sant friction  with  the  police.  Latrobe's  idea  had  its  merits, 
but  the  miners  were  not  in  a  state  of  mind  to  listen  even  to 
any  modification  of  the  present  system.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  much  misrepresentation  of  the  proposal  was  made,  for 
in  most  places  it  was  understood  that  the  Government  was 
seeking  to  still  further  bleed  the  digger. 

Signs  of  disaffection  manifested  themselves  in  the 
following  year.  In  January  unpleasantness  occurred  on 
the  Ovens  goldfield,  where  in  a  fracas  an  unlicensed  miner 
was  shot  dead  and  an  Assistant  Gold  Commissioner  received 
some  rough  usage  at  the  hands  of  the  mob.  Four  months 
later  there  was  a  more  serious  outbreak  at  Forest  Creek, 
near  Castlemaine.  A  police  sub-inspector  who  was  engaged 
in  raiding  shanteys  that  were  suspected  of  illicitly  selling 
spirits  blundered  badly.  He  attempted  to  arrest  an  innocent 
man,  burnt  his  tent,  destroyed  the  stores  of  two  other  people 
implicated,  and  thereby  raised  a  hornets'  nest.  The  com- 
rades of  the  injured  store-keeper  rallied  round  him  in  large 

-96- 


THE   RUSH  FOR   GOLD,    1852-1856 

numbers.  After  a  "  roll  up  "  meeting  notices  were  displayed 
on  trees  and  huts  around  the  field  :  "  Down  with  the  trooper, 
Christian,  and  shoot  him.  Down  with  oppression !  " 
"  Diggers,  avenge  your  wrongs."  "  Down  with  the  police 
camp.  Up  with  Christian.  Cry  '  no  quarter,'  and  show  no 
mercy  !  "  Only  the  presence  of  a  considerable  body  of 
police  prevented  the  disorder  developing  into  a  riot.  This 
and  other  vexatious  incidents  helped  to  swell  the  storm  of 
discontent.  More  miners'  meetings  were  held,  and  deputa- 
tions waited  on  Mr.  Latrobe  to  insist  on  the  lowering  of  the 
licence  fee.  It  was  to  be  reduced  to  10s.  a  month,  they  said, 
with  the  option  of  quarterly  payments  if  desired,  and  the 
practice  of  collecting  by  means  of  an  armed  force  was  to  be 
discontinued.  Furthermore,  the  miners  asked  for  proper 
representation  in  the  legislature. 

This  last  demand  was  not  unreasonable.  In  the  few  years 
since  the  opening  of  the  goldfields  the  mining  population 
had  undergone  a  distinct  change.  Whereas  at  first  men  had 
come  and  gone,  mere  birds  of  passage  taking  their  pick  of 
the  gold  here  and  there,  thousands  were  now  following  gold- 
digging  as  a  settled  and  permanent  occupation.1  It  was  this 
class  which  was  clamorous  for  reform  and  for  due  recog- 
nition of  its  political  and  social  rights. 

Events  now  began  to  move  rapidly.  Ballarat,  which 
hitherto  had  not  taken  any  prominent  part  in  the  agitation, 
evinced  its  sympathy  with  its  comrades  at  Bendigo.  It  was 
to  be  a  common  cause  on  all  the  fields.  At  the  end  of  August 
1853,  the  Gold  and  Police  Commissioners  at  Bendigo  were 
so  startled  by  a  popular  demonstration  that  they  sent  urgent 

1  How  vast  Victoria's  gold  yield  was  becoming  will  be  understood  from 
the  official  returns.  In  1851  the  output  was  145,137  oz.  (£580,548)  ;  in 
1853  it  had  risen  to  3,150,021  oz.  (£12,600,084). 

—  97  —  H 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

messages  to  Melbourne  advising  the  reduction,  and  even  the 
abolition,  of  the  licence  fee.  In  the  face  of  this  Latrobe  and 
his  councillors  surrendered.  They  had  a  strong  force  of 
soldiers  and  police  at  command,  a  regiment  having  arrived 
from  England,1  but  they  wisely  forebore  to  precipitate  a 
conflict.  The  licence  was  therefore  allowed  to  stand  at 
10s.  per  month,  modifications  were  made  in  the  conditions 
under  which  it  was  issued,  and  also  in  the  collection  of  the 
fees,  and  with  these  concessions  gained  the  miners  abandoned 
open  hostility. 

The  following  year  saw  a  new  Governor  in  the  person 
of  Sir  Charles  Hotham,  a  distinguished  naval  officer.  Mr. 
Latrobe  had  resigned  the  post  to  return  to  England.  With 
a" view  to  more  closely  examining  the  position  of  affairs,  Sir 
Charles  paid  a  visit  to  the  goldfields,  and  by  his  diplomatic 
speeches  very  favourably  impressed  the  diggers.  For  one 
thing,  he  recognised  the  fact  that  the  franchise  must  inevit- 
ably be  granted,  and  he  held  this  out  as  an  inducement  to 
future  orderliness.  Promises,  however,  were  not  everything. 
The  miners  by  this  time  knew  that  they  were  powerful  enough 
in  their  organisation  to  enforce  the  reforms  on  which  they 
insisted,  but  meanwhile  the  "  digger-hunting  "  annoyance 
on  the  part  of  the  police  had  not  altogether  abated.  So 
many  men  were  known  to  be  working  on  their  claims  without 
licences  that  the  Gold  Commissioner  was  ordered  to  be  still 
more  zealous  in  his  efforts  to  rectify  the  abuse.  This  he 
proceeded  to  do,  with  much  consequent  trouble.  There  was 
additional  dissatisfaction  arising  from  the  prohibition  of 
liquor-selling  on  the  goldfields,  and  from  the  presence  of 

1  AtBendigo  alone  there  were  154  soldiers  and  171  police.  By  an  Act 
to  regulate  the  police  force,  passed  in  January  1853,  the  constabulary  on 
the  fields  were  much  increased. 


—  99  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Chinese  diggers,  with  whom  the  Government  sided.  The 
cumulative  effect  of  these  pin-pricks  was  soon  to  be  felt. 
Unexpectedly,  an  event  occurred  which  suddenly  set  the 
goldfields  aflame  with  rebellion,  and  made  the  name  of 
Eureka  historic  in  Australian  annals. 

What  happened  was  in  itself  a  trifling  affair,  trifling,  that 
is,  in  the  eyes  of  a  mining  community.  A  digger  named 
James  Scobie  called  at  the  Eureka  Hotel,  Ballarat,  one 
October  night  after  hours  and  asked  for  drink.  He  was 
refused.  An  altercation  ensued,  the  result  being  that  at 
daylight  Scobie  was  found  lying  dead  outside  the  house,  his 
head  evidently  having  been  split  open  by  a  spade.  Bentley, 
the  hotel  proprietor  and  a  Tasmanian  ex-convict,  was 
suspected  of  the  murder,  and  he,  his  wife  and  another  ex- 
convict  named  Farrell,  were  arrested,  but  the  trial  proved 
abortive.  The  local  bench  acquitted  the  accused  in  the  face 
of  what  was  considered  to  be  damning  evidence.  Instantly 
Scobie's  friends  roused  the  miners  of  Ballarat  to  action.  The 
Eureka  Hotel  was  assailed,  wrecked  and  then  burnt  to  the 
ground,  while  its  inmates  only  escaped  with  their  lives 
through  the  intervention  of  the  police. 

Upon  this  Governor  Hotham  ordered  a  fresh  inquiry  to 
be  made  into  the  case.  In  the  end  gross  corruption 
was  proved,  the  chairman  of  the  magistrates  was  dis- 
missed, with  some  other  officials,  and  Bentley  and  Farrell 
were  convicted.  The  latter  received  severe  sentences  of 
imprisonment.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  authorities  did  not  rest 
content  with  this.  Their  next  step  was  to  arrest  and  sen- 
tence three  ringleaders  of  the  mob  which  attacked  the 
hotel.  This  act  further  incensed  the  angry  miners,  and  a 
"  Reform  League  "  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  insisting 
on  "  the  prerogative  of  the  people."  In  due  course  a 

—  100  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1852-1856 

deputation  waited  on  the  Governor  to  demand  the  release 
of  the  prisoners,  but  Hotham  took  umbrage  at  the  attitude 
of  the  delegates,  and  peremptorily  refused. 

The  miners'  representatives  went  back  to  Ballarat,  to 
proclaim  the  futility  of  their  mission  to  a  meeting  of  some  ten 
thousand  indignant  men.  That  day,  29th  November,  1854, 
witnessed  a  memorable  scene  on  Bakery  Hill.  Inflamed 
by  the  violent  speeches  of  their  leaders,  the  mob  denounced 
the  Government,  hoisted  a  flag  which  was  to  be  the  emblem 
of  the  "  Republic  of  Victoria,"  and  proceeded  to  display 
its  contempt  for  authority  by  burning  all  licences.  A  number 
of  fires  were  quickly  made,  into  which  the  obnoxious 
documents  were  thrown.  And  ere  the  flames  had  died 
down  every  man  present  had  taken  an  oath  to  unite  in  the 
defence  of  any  digger  arrested  for  not  having  a  licence. 

This  revolutionary  action  was  at  once  reported  to 
Hotham.  "  Inspect  all  licences  !  "  said  the  Governor  in  a 
return  despatch,  and  next  morning  another  of  the  customary 
"  digger  hunts  "  began.  But  this  time,  when  the  warning 
cry  of  "  Joes  !  Joes  !  "  went  the  round  of  the  camps  the 
troopersjwere  received  with  a  hot  fusillade  of  stones,  in  the 
face  of  which  nothing  could  be  done.  In  vain  did  Gold 
Commissioner  Rede  harangue  and  plead  with  the  crowd ; 
their  minds  were  made  up.  Finally,  as  a  last  resort,  the 
Riot  Act  was  read,  after  which  military  and  police  combined 
and  dispersed  the  assemblage.  Of  those  taken  prisoners 
eight  were  arrested  for  non-compliance  with  the  licence 
regulations. 

This  completed  the  tale  of  the  morning's  work.  More 
serious  events  were  to  follow.  In  the  afternoon  and  evening 
of  the  same  day  a  monster  meeting  was  held  on  Bakery  Hill, 
where  again  loud  denunciations  of  the  Government  showed 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  temper  of  the  miners.  At  the  head  of  the  men  was  Peter 
Lalor,  an  Irish  digger  who  had  been  most  prominent  through 
all  the  agitation.  His  summons  to  arms  met  with  an  instant 
response.  It  was  resolved  to  seize  rifles,  ammunition, 
horses  and  stores,  to  drill  and  organise  their  forces,  and  to 
fight  to  the  bitter  end.  "  We  swear  by  the  Southern 
Cross,"  ran  the  oath  taken,  "to  stand  truly  by  each  other 
and  fight  to  defend  our  rights  and  liberties  !  " 

There  was  no  waste  of  time.  The  next  day  squads  of 
men  commenced  to  drill,  the  erection  of  a  stockade  at  the 
junction  of  the  Eureka  lead  with  the  Melbourne  road  was 
ordered,  while  sentries  posted  themselves  on  the  roads  lead- 
ing to  Melbourne  and  Geelong  to  be  on  the  look-out  for 
reinforcements  that  the  military  might  be  expecting.  By 
night-time  so  much  had  been  accomplished  that  the  hastily 
formed  stockade  contained  a  small  army  of  eight  hundred 
men,  armed  with  rifles,  pistols,  pikes  and  other  weapons. 
Arms  had  been  commandeered  from  all  quarters,  special 
picquets  enforcing  the  orders  fand  safeguarding  the  store- 
keepers from  robbery.  Some  of  the  receipts  given  by  the 
levying  officers  in  the  name  of  the  League  were  roughly 
drawn  up,  and  make  amusing  reading.  One  runs  :  "  Re- 
ceived from  the  Ballarat  store,  1  Pistol  for  the  Comtee,  x 
Hugh  McCarty — Hurra  for  the  people  !  "  Another  :  "  The 
Reform  Lege  Comete,  6  drenks,  fouer  chillings,  4  Pies,  for 
fower  of  the  neight  watch  patriots,  x.  P." 

The  forces  on  the  opposing  side  were  under  the  command 
of  Captain  J.  W.  Thomas,  of  the  40th  Regiment,  and  com- 
prised both  soldiers  and  mounted  police.  This  little  army 
of  less  than  five  hundred  went  into  camp  in  hourly  expecta- 
tion of  attack.  But  the  leaders  of  the  insurgents  were  desir- 
ous of  making  yet  another  effort  to  end  the  matter  amicably. 

—  102  — 


THE  BUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1852-1855 

Two  prominent  miners,  George  Black  and  Carboni  Raffaello, 
were  appointed  to  meet  the  Gold  Commissioner,  to  demand 
the  release  of  the  eight  imprisoned  non-licence  holders  and 
the  discontinuance  of  "  digger  hunting."  As  before,  how- 
ever, the  request  was  met  with  a  curt  rebuff.  It  was  now 
realised  that  there  was  no  other  recourse  save  to  arms. 

On  1st  December  Captain  Thomas's  camp  was  fired 
upon.  Early  on  the  following  morning,  the  stockade  having 
been  much  strengthened  and  reinforced  by  four  hundred 
Creswick  miners,  a  march  was  made  to  Bakery  Hill,  but 
without  coming  into  conflict  with  the  police.  Meanwhile, 
infantry,  artillery  and  marines  had  been  ordered  up  from 
Melbourne  by  the  Commissioner,  so  that  Captain  Thomas 
could  now  rely  on  a  strong  body  of  troops. 

According  to  an  authoritative  account,  "  every  Govern- 
ment employe  was  armed  and  told  off  to  his  post,  and 
sentinels  and  videttes  were  placed  at  every  point.  The 
principal  buildings  of  the  camp  were  fortified  with  breast- 
works of  firewood,  trusses  of  hay,  and  bags  of  corn  from  the 
Commissariat  Stores,  and  the  women  and  children  were  sent 
for  security  into  the  store,  which  was  walled  with  thick 
slabs  and  accounted  bullet-proof.  A  violent  storm  of  rain, 
with  thunder,  commenced  as  these  arrangements  were  com- 
pleted, and  the  Mounted  Police,  soaked  through,  spent  the 
night  standing  or  lying  by  their  horses,  armed,  and  horses 
saddled  ready  for  instant  action.  At  4  a.m.  on  the  2nd  of 
December  the  whole  garrison  was  under  arms,  and  soon  after 
daylight  a  demonstration  in  force  was  made  towards  Bakery 
Hill  without  opposition,  although  bodies  of  men  were  seen 
drilling  near  the  Red  Hill.  A  mounted  trooper  coming  from 
Melbourne  with  despatches  was  fired  at  near  the  Eureka  lead. 
No  work  was  carried  on  through  the  entire  diggings,  and 

—  103  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

every  place  of  business  was  closed.  Notices  were  issued 
stating  that  if  any  lights  were  seen  in  the  neighbourhood 
after  eight  o'clock  at  night,  or  if  any  fire-arms  were  dis- 
charged, the  offenders  would  be  fired  at  by  the  military." 

The  2nd  of  December  was  a  Saturday.  By  the  middle 
of  the  day  the  insurgents'  stockade  was  seen  to  be  deserted, 
but  a  little  later  a  fairly  large  muster  of  armed  miners 
appeared.  Over  a  hundred  Calif ornians  from  adjacent 
diggings  had  joined  them.  Of  the  original  roll-up  not  a  few 
by  this  time  had  thought  better  of  their  decision  and  quitted 
the  scene  ;  the  various  delays,  further,  accounted  for  the 
absence  of  many  others.  This  weeding-out  left  the  foreign 
element  in  the  majority.  Lalor's  followers  were  now  prin- 
cipally Italians,  Germans,  French  and  Prussians.  Despite 
the  weakening  of  the  force,  however,  and  the  knowledge 
that  the  men's  enthusiasm  had  cooled  somewhat,  the  leaders 
determined  to  stick  to  their  guns. 

The  battle  began  in  earnest  in  the  small  hours  of  Sunday. 
Leaving  his  camp  before  daylight  Captain  Thomas  advanced 
upon  the  stockade  with  two  hundred  and  seventy-six  soldiers 
and  mounted  police.1  As  dawn  broke  the  miners'  sentries 
gave  the  alarm,  and  several  shots  were  hastily  fired  at  the 
troops.  Inside  the  stockade  all  was  animation  as  the  men 
rushed  to  their  posts,  but  the  onset  of  the  troopers  could  not 
be  stayed.  The  outer  breastwork  of  overturned  carts,  ropes 
and  slabs  was  broken  down,  and  the  rebels  were  driven  back 
to  their  inner  entrenchments.  From  this  moment  it  became 
a  fierce  hand-to-hand  fight,  bayonet  against  pike,  and  musket 
against  musket. 

1  The  troops  engaged  consisted  of  the  following  :  117  men  of  the  40th 
Regiment,  under  Captain  Wise,  Lieutenants  Bowdler,  Hall  and  Gardyne  ; 
65  men  of  the  12th  Regiment,  under  Captain  Queade  and  Lieutenant  Paul ; 
70  Mounted  Police,  under  Sub-Inspectors  Furnley,  Langley,  Chomley,  and 
Lieutenant  Cossack  ;  and  24  Foot  Police,  under  Sub-Inspector  Carter. 

—  104  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,    1852-1855 

In  his  story  of  the  melee  Raffaello  tells  how  his  comrades 
took  shelter  in  the  rifle  pits  that  had  been  dug  within  the 
enclosure.  Peter  Lalor,  a  prominent  figure  at  his  station, 
was  one  of  the  first  to  be  picked  off  by  a  rifle  bullet,  being 
shot  in  the  shoulder  and  so  badly  wounded  as  to  necessitate 
the  amputation  of  his  arm.  After  his  fall  the  issue  of  the 
fight  was  no  longer  in  doubt.  Under  the  deadly  volleys 
poured  upon  them  the  defenders  of  the  stockade  were 
quickly  mowed  down,  and  a  bayonet  charge  put  a  finish  to 
the  hopeless  struggle.  As  the  remnant  of  the  miners  broke 
into  wild  flight  the  troopers  tore  down  the  blue  Southern 
Cross  flag  with  its  silver  stars,  and  remained  masters  of  the 
field. 

The  engagement  had  occupied  less  than  half  an  hour,  and 
it  had  cost  twenty-eight  lives.  Of  the  fallen  no  fewer  than 
twenty-two  were  diggers.  On  the  side  of  the  troops  one 
officer,  Captain  Wise,  of  the  40th  Regiment,  had  been  killed. 
Many  of  the  attacking  force,  however,  received  severe 
wounds,  for  the  fighting  had  been  of  a  most  desperate  char- 
acter. While  the  injured  on  both  sides  were  being  tended, 
the  troopers  gathered  in  a  large  number  of  prisoners,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  in  all  being  taken.  These  were 
marched  back  to  Ballarat,  to  be  subsequently  tried  for  high 
treason. 

Such  was  the  inglorious  and  pathetic  affair  of  the  Eureka 
Stockade,  which  stands  for  all  time,  in  the  words  of  one  writer, 
as  "  the  finger-post  of  Democracy  in  Australia."  Ineffec- 
tive as  it  was  in  its  immediate  results,  it  was  a  spirited 
attempt  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  free-born  citizens,  and  its 
justification,  or  part  justification,  was  not  long  in  following. 
While  the  general  feeling  of  the  goldfields  community  at  its 
termination  was  one  of  relief,  the  widespread  sympathy  that 

—  105  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

was  extended  to  the  rioters  could  not  be  mistaken  by  the 
Government.  In  all  parts  of  the  colony  a  similar  expression 
of  opinion  was  heard,  and  little  doubt  was  felt  as  to  the 
result  of  the  impending  trial. 

Lalor,  Black,  Vern,  and  other  leaders  successfully  eluded 
capture,  and  of  the  prisoners  who  eventually  appeared  before 
the  tribunal  of  justice  all  were  acquitted,  amid  universal 
satisfaction.  Just  before  the  trial  Melbourne,  at  a  monster 
meeting,  had  passed  a  resolution  to  the  effect  "  that  the  un- 
happy outbreak  at  Ballarat  was  induced  by  no  traitorous 
designs  against  the  institution  of  monarchy,  but  purely  by  a 
sense  of  political  wrong  and  irritation,  engendered  by  the 
injudicious  and  offensive  enforcement  of  an  obnoxious  and 
invidious  tax,  which,  if  legal,  has  since  been  condemned  by 
the  Commission."  With  as  little  delay  as  possible  Sir  Charles 
Hotham  had  instituted  an  inquiry  into  the  matter,  and  the 
Commissioners  in  their  report  found  that  the  diggers  had 
many  genuine  causes  for  complaint.  They  also  made  several 
recommendations  which  the  Governor  promptly  carried  into 
effect.  By  an  Act  in  Council  the  licence  fee  was  done  away 
with  and  the  system  of  "  Miners'  Rights  "  substituted,  this 
entailing  an  annual  payment  of  20s.  and  conferring  upon  the 
recipient  both  mining  privileges  and  the  franchise.  A  gold 
export  duty  of  2s.  6d.  per  oz.  was  fixed  upon  as  a  source  of 
revenue.  Representation  in  the  Legislative  Council  was  the 
next  point  conceded,  two  members  each  being  allotted  to 
Bendigo,  Ballarat  and  Castlemaine,  and  one  each  to  the  gold- 
fields  at  Avoca  and  Ovens. 

Other  changes  that  resulted  included  the  abolition  of 
the  title  of  Gold  Commissioner,  that  officer  being  in  future 
styled  "  Warden  of  the  Goldfields."  Local  elective  mining 
courts  were  also  established,  and  several  of  the  principal  miners 

—  106  — 


THE  RUSH  FOR  GOLD,   1852-1855 

received  their  appointments  as  Justices  of  the  Peace.  By 
the  end  of  December  1854,  the  miners  of  Victoria  had  settled 
down  again  into  peaceable,  law-abiding  citizens,  with  a 
measure  of  local  government  that  ensured  a  happier  and 
more  prosperous  future  for  themselves  and  the  entire  colony. 
Of  Peter  Lalor  it  may  be  added  that  when  in  1855 
Ballarat  was  asked  to  send  representatives  to  the  Council, 
he  was  among  the  first  to  be  nominated.  In  after  years  he 
filled  several  important  positions  in  the  Legislative  Assem- 
bly. 


—  107  — 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   POLICE   AS   EXPLORERS 

Edward  Eyre,  Police  Magistrate — InspectorRobert  O'Hara  Burke—- 
The Victorian  Exploration  Expedition — W.  J.  Wills — The  start 
from  Melbourne — Division  of  the  party — At  Cooper's  Creek — The 
dash  for  the  Gulf — Wright  at  Menindie — Burke  and  Wills  reach  the 
coast — The  return  journey — Death  of  Gray — The 'deserted  depot — 
Wright  and  Brahe — A  series  of  blunders — Burke,  Wills  and  King  in 
the  bush — Among  the  blacks — Nardoo — Burke  and  Wills  succumb — 

j  Howitt  finds  King — Other  expeditions — Frederick  Walker,  Inspector 
of  Police — From  Rockhampton  to  the  Gulf — Colonel  Egerton-Warbur- 
ton — In  Central  Australia — Sub-Inspector  Robert  Johnstone. 

IT  is  among  the  proud  boasts  of  the  Mounted  Police  that 
they  are  worthily  represented  in  the  ranks  of  the  Aus- 
tralian explorers.  Along  with  those  of  Eyre,  Leichhardt, 
Sturt,  Grey  and  McDouall  Stuart,  are  to  be  found  the  names 
of  Burke,  Egerton-Warburton  and  Walker,  each  of  whom 
was  directly  and  actively  connected  with  the  police  service. 
Edward  Eyre,  by  the  way,  had  a  link  with  the  force,  inasmuch 
as  he  held  the  position  of  Police  Magistrate  previous  to 
making  his  memorable  and  hazardous  journey  along  the 
coast  from  Adelaide  to  Western  Australia  in  1841.  In  the 
present  chapter  we  may  digress  for  a  moment  from  the  plain 
record  of  police  administrative  work  in  the  Australian 
colonies  to  consider  the  achievements  of  those  officers  who 
have  been  detached  for  special  duty  in  exploration. 

—  108  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 


In  Robert  O'Hara  Burke  the  Mounted  Police  have  their 
most  famous  representative.  No  record  of  Australian  history 
is  complete  without  the  story  of  the  great  journey  from 
south  to  north  made  by  Burke  and  Wills  in  1860.  It  was  a 
journey  fraught  with  tremendous  difficulties  and  attended  by 
terrible  disasters,  and  round  it  has  raged  no  little  controversy. 
After  the  lapse  of  half  a  century,  when  the  share  of  praise 
and  blame  to  be 
meted  out  to  the 
leaders  has  been 
properly  appor- 
tioned, one  can  see  * 
how  great  was  the 
achievement  and 
how  lacking  were 
the  attributes  that 
make  for  success  in 
such  an  enterprise. 

The  Burke  and 
Wills  expedition 
owed  its  inception 
to  an  offer  made 
by  Mr.  Ambrose 
Kyte  of  Mel- 
bourne, at  a  time 
when  Victoria  was  desirous  to  add  her  quota  to  the  great 
work  of  exploration  initiated  by  the  sister  colony  of  New 
South  Wales.  "  I  will  give  £1,000,"  said  this  gentleman, 
"  towards  the  equipment  of  a  party  to  explore  Central  Aus- 
tralia, provided  that  a  similar  sum  is  contributed  by  the 
public .' '  The  response  was  immediate  and  generous .  Within 
a  short  time  over  £3,000  was  subscribed,  and  to  this  was 

—  109  — 


ROBERT    O  KARA  BURKE. 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

added  £6,000  voted  by  Government,  with  an  additional 
£3,000  for  the  purchase  of  camels  from  India.  For  the  first 
time  in  Australia  the  "  ship  of  the  desert  "  was  to  be  employed 
as  a  factor  in  traversing  the  bleak,  sandy  regions  of  the 
interior. 

Under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Victoria  the 
details  of  the  Victorian  Exploration  Expedition  were  quickly 
arranged.  The  main  depot,  the  "  jumping-off  place,"  was 
to  be  Cooper's  Creek,  which  had  been  the  limit  of  Sturt's 
last  journey.  Thence  the  explorers  were  to  strike  out  due 
north  for  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria.  The  choice  of  a  leader 
was  left  to  a  selection  committee,  and  after  due  consideration 
the  appointment  was  given  to  Mr.  Burke.  Mr.  George  James 
Landells,  who  had  brought  over  the  camels  from  India, 
was  second  in  command,  the  other  members  of  the  party 
being :  William  John  Wills,  surveyor  and  astronomer ; 
Herman  Beckler,  medical  officer  and  geologist';  Charles 
Ferguson,  foreman  ;  Thomas  McDonogh,  assistant ;  William 
Patten,  Patrick  Langan,  Owen  Cowan,  William  Brahe", 
Robert  Fletcher,  John  King,  Henry  Croker,  Gray,  John 
Dickford,  and  three  sepoy  camel  drivers. 

Burke,  who  was  an  Irishman,  like  so  many  prominent 
men  in  the  Mounted  Police,  had  had  a  varied  and  eventful 
career.  He  had  served  in  the  Austrian  Cavalry  with  the 
rank  of  Captain,  and  in  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  before 
emigrating  to  Australia.  Van  Diemen's  Land  gave  him 
his  first  colonial  experience,  his  appointments  there  having 
included  that  of  Acting-Inspector  at  Hobart  Town.  In 
Victoria  he  became  Police  Magistrate  at  Beechworth,  a  post 
he  held  until  1855,  when  the  Crimean  War  led  him  to  apply 
for  leave  of  absence  in  the  hope  of  obtaining  a  commission  in 
a  line  regiment.  His  hopes  were  not  realised,  however. 

—  no  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

The  war  came  to  a  sudden  termination,  and  he  returned  to 
Victoria  to  enter  the  police  force  as  an  Inspector.  When 
his  services  were  accepted  for  the  projected  expedition  he 
had  charge  of  the  station  at  Castlemaine.  He  was  then 
thirty-six  years  of  age. 

Wills  was  a  native  of  Devonshire,  where  he  was  born 
in  1834,  and  had  begun  life  in  Australia  as  a  shepherd  on 
the  Edwards  River  in  Victoria.  Tiring  of  this  occupation, 
he  entered  the  Government  Survey  Department,  and  in 
1858  became  an  assistant  at  the  Melbourne  Observatory, 
where  his  scientific  attainments  were  soon  recognised. 
Two  years  previously,  when  an  expedition  had  been  talked 
of,  Wills  had  applied  for  a  post,  but  the  project  had  fallen 
through.  On  the  organisation  of  the  1860  expedition  he 
was  one  of  the  first  to  be  appointed. 

The  20th  of  August  saw  the  party  set  out  from  Melbourne 
with  its  complement  of  twenty-seven  camels  and  a  few 
horses  and  waggons.  Proceeding  through  the  settled  dis- 
tricts to  the  River  Darling,  it  reached  Menindie,  and  here 
the  first  depot  was  established.  Here,  also,  began  the  first 
troubles.  Ferguson,  the  foreman,  was  dismissed  by  Burke, 
while  Mr.  Landells  and  Dr.  Beckler  resigned  their  positions 
owing  to  differences  of  opinion  with  their  leader.  These 
three  now  returned  to  Melbourne,  and  Burke  reconstituted 
his  force.  In  place  of  Landells  he  appointed  Wills  second 
in  command.  A  man  named  Wright,  whom  he  had  picked 
up  at  a  sheep  station  and  secured  as  guide,  was  given  the 
charge  of  the  camels.  With  these  new  arrangements  effected 
Burke  divided  his  party,  leaving  half  in  camp  on  the  Darling, 
while  he,  Wright,  and  seven  others  pushed  on  for  Cooper's 
Creek. 

Good  progress  was  made  to  this  point,  but  ere  reaching 
—  in  — 


THE  TROOPER 

the  Creek  Burke  made  yet  another  change.  Wright,  to 
whom  he  had  taken  a  great  fancy,  was  promoted  to  be 
third  in  command,  and  was  despatched  back  to  Menindie  to 
bring  up  the  rear  party  with  the  supplies.  In  the  meantime 
a  camp  was  formed  at  Cooper's  Creek,  where,  pending 
the  arrival  of  their  companions,  Burke  and  Wills  made 
several  excursions  into  the  surrounding  country.  The 
knowledge  gained  by  these  trips  did  not  encourage  them  to 
be  hopeful.  In  most  directions  the  ground  was  bare,  rough 
and  stony,  and  water  was  scarce.  On  one  occasion  Wills 
travelled  a  distance  of  ninety  miles  without  finding  water, 
and  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  several  camels.  On  an- 
other he  and  King  ventured  into  a  wide  desert  which  offered 
no  practicable  route  to  the  north. 

It  was  the  llth  of  November  when  the  advance  guard 
arrived  at  the  Creek.  After  more  than  a  month  had  gone 
by  and  there  was  no  sign  of  Wright  and  his  party,  Burke 
became  impatient  of  delay  and  decided  on  a  bold  plan. 
Four  of  his  company  were  to  remain  at  the  depot,  to  con- 
struct a  stockade  there  and  await  the  others.  With  Wills, 
King  and  Gray,  he  meant  to  make  a  dash  for  the  Gulf, 
taking  with  him  six  camels,  one  horse,  and  three  months' 
stock  of  provisions.  Of  those  left  behind  Burke  wrote  in  a 
despatch  to  the  Government  :  "I  shall  leave  the  party 
which  remain  here  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Brahe,  in  whom 
I  have  every  confidence.  The  feed  is  very  good.  There 
is  no  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  the  natives  if  they 
are  properly  managed,  and  there  is  nothing  therefore 
to  prevent  the  party  remaining  here  until  our  return, 
or  until  their  provisions  run  short." 

Burke's  impetuosity  had  led  him  into  making  a  rash 
move,  and  yet  all  might  have  gone  well  but  for  one  untoward 

—  112  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

and  unexpected  incident.  The  explorers  had  not  been  at 
Cooper's  Creek  more  than  a  day  when  Wright,  hi  his  camp 
on  the  Darling,  learned  the  news  that  McDouall  Stuart 
had  succeeded  in  nearly  crossing  the  continent.  As  it 
was  important  that  his  leader  should  know  this,  with  a 
view  to  following  Stuart's  track  where  practicable,  Wright 
hastily  sent  off  two  mounted  men  and  a  native  with  a 
message  to  Burke.  He  himself,  until  their  return,  would 
wait  at  Menindie  with  the  stores. 

Wright's  decision  in  the  circumstances  was  undoubtedly 
a  wrong  one.  In  remaining  at  Menindie  he  clearly  dis- 
obeyed orders,  while  his  own  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
country  should  have  told  him  of  the  danger  of  delay.  As 
the  weeks  passed  by  the  fierce  heat  of  the  summer  dried 
up  the  herbage  and  exhausted  most  of  the  watercourses. 
The  difficulties  of  the  journey  to  the  main  depot  were 
multiplied  a  hundredfold.  When  at  last  the  non-appearance 
of  the  messengers  showed  that  things  had  gone  amiss 
with  them  a  search  party  was  sent  out  and  the  men  were 
discovered  in  a  camp  of  blacks  nearly  two  hundred  miles 
away.  They  had  lost  themselves,  had  wandered  for  many 
days  suffering  great  hardships,  and  had  taken  refuge  with 
the  natives,  their  mission  unaccomplished.  There  was  now 
no  occasion  for  further  waiting.  On  26th  January  Wright 
broke  camp  and  began  his  march  to  the  Creek. 

How  this  lamentable  check  proved  fatal  to  the  four 
explorers  who  had  gone  ahead  in  the  attempt  to  reach  the 
coast  will  be  seen  as  we  follow  the  story  of  their  journeying. 
It  was  16th  December  when  Burke  and  Wills  bade  their 
companions  good-bye  and  plunged  into  the  interior.  From 
Wills'  diary  (Burke  did  not  keep  his  posted  regularly)  we 
learn  that  the  little  party  made  successful  progress  along  a 

—  113  —  i 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

fine  watercourse  which  took  them  a  considerable  distance 
to  the  north.  Both  water  and  grass  proved  to  be  abundant, 
fish  and  wild-fowl  were  procured  in  plenty,  so  that  there  was 
no  danger  of  starvation  to  be  feared.  The  blacks  were  often 
troublesome,  but  no  conflict  with  them  occurred.  Travelling 
easily  and  without  molestation  the  explorers  crossed  a 
range  of  mountains  which  they  named  the  Standish  Ranges, 
after  the  Victorian  Commissioner  of  Police,  and  reached 
Cloncuddy  Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Flinders  River.  Here, 
owing  to  the  swampy  nature  of  the  ground,  the  camels 
were  abandoned,  and,  King  and  Gray  being  left  in  camp 
with  the  bulk  of  the  stores,  Burke  and  Wills  pushed  on  to 
the  sea. 

In  his  brief  notes  Burke  says  :  "  28th  February.  It 
would  be  as  well  to  say  that  we  reached  the  open  sea,  but  we 
could  not  obtain  a  view  of  the  ocean,  although  we  made 
every  endeavour  to  do  so."  What  prevented  the  actual 
accomplishment  of  this  was  the  dense  forest  of  mangroves, 
which  barred  their  way.  Leaving  their  exhausted  pack- 
horse  behind,  hobbled,  the  two  men  made  a  gallant  effort  to 
cut  a  path  through  the  tangled  undergrowth,  but  it  proved 
too  herculean  a  task.  They  had  to  abandon  the  attempt 
and  remain  satisfied  with  having  practically  arrived  at  their 
goal.  They  were  within  a  mile  or  so  of  the  sea,  though 
unaware  of  their  exact  whereabouts.  The  river  they  had 
followed  they  mistook  for  the  Albert,  but  as  a  matter  of 
fact  they  were  some  hundred  miles  to  the  east  of  this  stream. 

There  was  now  the  return  journey  to  be  faced,  the  jour- 
ney to  the  main  depot  where  Wright  and  the  rest  of  the 
expedition  were  to  be  in  waiting.  Having  picked  up  King 
and  Gray,  and  recaptured  the  camels,  Burke  and  Wills 
set  themselves  bravely  to  the  tremendous  task  before 

—  114  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

them.  That  it  was  to  be  such  soon  became  apparent. 
Rain  poured  upon  them  incessantly  for  days,  making  travel- 
ling slow  and  laborious.  Then  sickness  broke  out.  Gray 
was  the  first  to  fall  ill  with  dysentery,  and  soon  after 
Burke  fell  a  victim  to  the  same  complaint.  As  they  dragged 
wearily  along  the  provisions  became  reduced.  First  one 
camel,  then  another,  had  to  be  killed  to  supply  meat.  And 
on  top  of  short  rations  and  hardships  came  the  disaster 
of  a  camel  bogged  and  abandoned  in  a  swamp,  with  the  loss 
some  days  later  of  much  valuable  baggage.  By  the  6th 
April  accidents  and  the  exigencies  of  the  journey  had  re- 
duced their  train  to  three  camels.  "  Billy,  "  the  horse3 
had  become  so  weak  that  it  was  imperative  to  shoot  him. 

Of  the  four  men  one,  Gray,  was  now  really  ill.  Both 
Burke  and  Wills  at  first  believed  him  to  be  shamming,  and 
the  former  is  stated  to  have  treated  him  roughly  when  the 
poor  fellow  helped  himself  to  some  flour  to  make  gruel 
with.  Gray  was  strapped  on  the  back  of  a  camel,  which 
itself  could  do  little  more  than  crawl,  and  the  slow  progress 
thus  made  added  to  Burke's  irritation.  On  the  16th  of 
the  month,  when  seven  miles  only  had  been  traversed,  Gray 
died,  and  Wills  records  that  they  were  all  three  so  weak 
that  they  could  hardly  dig  a  grave  for  him  in  the  ground. 
The  party  was  by  this  time  in  the  terrible  Stony  Desert. 

After  a  day's  rest  they  pushed  on  again,  now  with  only 
two  camels  and  a  slender  store  of  meat.  Happily,  as  they 
thought,  the  depot  at  Cooper's  Creek  was  not  far  distant ; 
within  a  little  while  tliey  would  rejoin  their  comrades.  By 
making  a  desperate  spurt,  travelling  by  night  as  well  as 
by  day,  the  three  reached  the  Creek  on  the  21st,  to  meet 
with  a  woeful  disappointment.  Instead  of  a  camp  they 
found  only  a  deserted  stockade.  No  sign  of  life  was  to 

—  115  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

be  seen.  Hardly  crediting  his  eyes  Burke  rode  on  in  ad- 
vance and  found  on  a  tree  the  word  "  Dig  "  cut  into  the 
bark.  Underneath,  when  he  obeyed  this  instruction,  he 
discovered  a  small  parcel  of  food  stuff  and  a  bottle  in  which 
was  a  letter  from  Brahe  stating  that  he  and  his  companions 
had  quitted  the  spot  that  very  morning  ! 
The  message  ran  as  follows — 

"  DEPOT,  COOPER'S  CREEK, 

April  2lst,  1861. 

"  The  depot  party  of  the  V.E.E.  leaves  this  camp  to-day  to 
return  to  the  Darling.  I  intend  to  go  SE.  from  camp  60  deg.,  to 
get  into  our  old  track  near  Bulloo.  Two  of  my  companions  and 
myself  are  quite  well ;  the  third,  Patten,  has  been  unable  to  walk 
for  the  last  eighteen  days,  as  his  leg  has  been  severely  hurt  when 
thrown  by  one  of  the  horses.  No  one  has  been  up  here  from  the 
Darling.  We  have  six  camels  and  twelve  horses  in  good  working 
condition. 

"WILLIAM  BRAH!." 

It  was  an  appalling  moment  for  Burke,  Wills  and  King. 
Ill  and  weak  after  more  than  four  months'  of  hard  travel 
and  privation,  and  with  their  provisions  sadly  depleted, 
they  were  dealt  the  cruellest  blow  that  Fate  could  have  held 
in  store  for  them.  Wills  might  write  cheerfully  (as  he  did) 
in  his  diary,  that  they  made  a  good  supper  off  some  oatmeal 
porridge  and  sugar  that  Brahe  had  left,  and  that  this, 
"  together  with  the  excitement  of  finding  ourselves  in  such 
a  peculiar  and  unexpected  position,  had  a  wonderful  effect 
in  removing  the  stiffness  from  our  legs."  He  might  also 
touch  lightly  on  their  disappointment  and  the  fact  that 
they  were  "  awkwardly  placed  "  as  to  clothing  ;  the  know- 
ledge must  have  been  borne  home  to  him  even  then  that 
death  stared  them  in  the  face. 

Before  leaving  the  Creek  to  strike  out  for  Adelaide,  which 
point  Burke  decided  on  making,  Wills  placed  his  written 

—  116  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

record  with  a  message  from  Burke  *  in  a  bottle  and  buried 
it  in  Brake's  cache.  By  a  fatal  want  of  thought,  however, 
he  neglected  to  alter  in  any  way  the  word  "  Dig  "  on  the 
tree,  an  omission  that  finally  cut  off  their  chance  of  rescue. 
Sixteen  days  afterwards  Wright  and  Brahe  were  again  at 
the  camp.  They  saw  that  the  cache  to  all  appearances 
was  undisturbed  and  left  without  examining  it.  King 
subsequently  averred  that  he  and  his  companions  had  left 
several  traces  of  their  visit,  but  this  was  denied.  And  so 
blunder  was  added  to  blunder,  making  the  culminating 
disaster  inevitable. 

What  had  happened  to  bring  about  this  seemingly 
inexplicable  desertion  may  be  briefly  stated.  In  his  tardy 
progress  to  Cooper's  Creek  Wright  met  with  continuous 
checks.  Several  of  his  party  fell  ill  with  the  scurvy,  neces- 
sitating the  formation  of  a  sick  camp,  and  the  natives 
encountered  now  began  to  show  signs  of  hostility.  From 
Bulloo  he  made  a  vain  effort  to  reach  the  Creek,  a  distance  of 
nearly  eighty  miles,  and  returned  to  recruit  his  force.  The 
day  on  which  this  retreat  was  made  was  the  21st  of  April, 
the  very  day  that  saw  Burke  and  Wills  stumbling  into 
the  abandoned  depot.  At  Bulloo  Wright's  party  was 

1  "  Depot  No.  2,  Cooper's  Creek.  The  return  party,  consisting  of  myself, 
Wills  and  King  (Gray  dead)  arrived  here  last  night,  and  found  that  the 
depot  party  had  started  on  the  same  day.  We  proceed  on  to-morrow  slowly 
down  the  creek  to  Adelaide,  but  are  very  weak.  Gray  died  on  the  road  from 
exhaustion  and  fatigue.  We  have  discovered  a  practicable  route  to 
Carpentaria,  the  chief  portion  of  which  lies  on  140  deg.  of  east  longitude. 
There  is  some  good  country  between  this  and  the  stony  desert.  From  there 
to  the  tropics  the  country  is  dry  and  stony.  Between  the  tropics  and 
Carpentaria  a  considerable  portion  is  rangy,  and  it  is  well  watered  and  richly 
grassed.  We  reached  the  shores  of  Carpentaria  on  February  11,  1861. 
Greatly  disappointed  at  finding  the  party  here  gone. 

"  (Signed)  ROBEBT  O'HABA  BUKKE. 

"  PS. — The  camels  cannot  travel,  and  we  cannot  walk,  or  we  should 
follow  the  other  party." 

—  117  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

diminished  by  two  deaths.  To  this  calamity  was  added 
a  conflict  with  the  blacks,  upon  whom  they  were 
compelled  to  open  fire. 

Then,  on  the  29th,  came  the  unexpected  arrival  of 
Brahe  and  his  companions.  Having  seen  nothing  of  the 
advance  party  under  Burke  for  over  four  months,  and 
being  anxious  about  Wright's  movements,  Brahe  had  de- 
cided to  rejoin  the  latter.  Here  was  another  irremediable 
mistake.  It  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  while  Brahe  was 
camped  down  the  Creek,  scarcely  a  day's  journey  from  the 
depot,  the  three  men  whose  lives  were  in  such  dreadful 
jeopardy  were  only  a  few  miles  distant  from  him  !  At 
Bulloo  the  leaders  of  the  two  parties  were  in  some  indec- 
ision as  to  how  to  act.  Wright's  impulse  was  to  return  to 
Menindie,  but,  thinking  it  advisable  to  assure  himself  that 
the  explorers  had  not  reached  Cooper's  Creek,  he  set  out 
thither  with  Brahe.  As  we  have  seen,  they  arrived  on  the 
spot  after  Burke,  Wills  and  King  had  left,  and  failed  to 
find  any  signs  of  their  comrades.  Thereafter  Wright 
retraced  his  steps  to  the  Darling,  to  report  the  situation 
to  the  Exploration  Committee  and  suggest  that  a  search 
party  be  sent  out. 

In  the  meantime  Burke  and  Wills  had  gone  forward 
helplessly  to  meet  their  fate.  Being  too  weak  to  think  of 
pursuing  Brahe's  party,  they  were  endeavouring  to  make  for 
Mount  Hopeless,  near  which  was  a  cattle  station.  This 
point  was  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  Creek. 
The  idea  of  thus  striking  out  for  Adelaide  originated  with 
Burke.  Both  Wills  and  King  would  have  preferred  to 
follow  their  old  track  back  to  the  Darling,  but  their  leader 
overruled  them,  and  the  journey  by  the  new  route  was 
begun.  How  they  fared  is  best  told  by  King  himself, 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

the  sole  survivor.  His  graphic  narrative  carries  the  story 
on  day  by  day  from  the  hour  he  left  the  Creek  to  his  even- 
tual discovery  by  the  relief  party  under  Mr.  Howitt. 

Having  narrated  how  they  worked  their  way  by  slow 
stages  down  the  creek  for  some  miles,  existing  mainly  on 
camel  meat  (both  animals  had  to  be  killed),  and  nardoo l  cakes 
and  fish  obtained  from  friendly  natives,  he  describes  the 
attempts  made  to  push  on  south-west  for  Mount  Hopeless. 
"  Our  rations,"  he  says,  "  now  consisted  of  only  one  small 
Johnny  cake  and  three  sticks  of  dried  meat  daily."  The 
little  store  of  water  carried  quickly  became  exhausted, 
and  no  more  was  to  be  found  in  the  parched,  sun-scorched 
country  around  them.  "  We  all  felt  satisfied  that  had 
there  been  a  few  days'  rain  we  could  have  got  through." 
In  the  face  of  this  set-back  they  returned  to  the  creek,  a 
weary  march  of  forty-five  miles.  Here  the  blacks  again 
befriended  them,  giving  them  fish  and  other  food,  and  at 
Burke's  request  Wills  once  more  went  on  to  the  depot  to 
leave  another  note  detailing  their  present  position.2 

Soon  after  Wills'  return  the  attitude  of  the  blacks  under- 
went a  marked  change.  They  made  signs  that  the  white 
men's  company  was  undesirable,  and,  packing  up  their  traps, 
they  left  the  camp.  The  others  made  a  vain  effort  to  follow 
them  and  obtain  assistance  ;  the  natives  moved  too  fast  to 

1  The  marsilia  macropua,  a  plant  similar  to  clover,  the  seeds  of  which 
are  pounded  up  by  the  natives  to  make  flour. 

2  Wills  wrote  thus  :    "  We  have  been  unable  to  leave  the  creek.     Both 
camels  are  dead.     Mr.  Burke  and  King  are  down  on  the  lower  part  of  the 
creek.    I  am  about  to  return  to  them,  when  we  shall  probably  come  up  this 
way.     We  are  trying  to  live  the  best  way  we  can,  like  the  blacks,  but  find 
it  hard  work.     Our  clothes  are  fast  going  to  pieces.     Send  provisions  and 
clothes  as  soon  as  possible. 

"  (Signed)  WILLIAM  J.  WILLS." 

In  a  postscript  he  added  :  "  The  depot  party  having  left  contrary  to 
instructions,  have  put  us  in  this  fix.  I  have  deposited  some  of  my  journals 
here  for  fear  of  accidents." 

—  119  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

be  overtaken.  Nardoo  collecting  now  became  their  chief 
object.  On  this  plant  depended  their  very  lives.  But  King, 
to  whom  this  duty  chiefly  fell,  was  failing  rapidly  in  strength, 
while  Wills  was  even  weaker.  The  latter  recognised  to  the 
full  the  extremity  to  which  they  were  reduced,  and  at  his 
suggestion  a  quantity  of  the  plant  was  gathered  and  made 
into  flour  sufficient  to  last  him  eight  days.  "  You  and  King," 
he  said  to  Burke,  :j"  must  go  in  search  of  the  natives  and  come 
back  here  for  me  afterwards.  It  is  our  only  chance." 
Burke  agreed  to  the  proposal,  and  the  two  men  set  forth  to- 
gether, leaving  their  companion  hi  a  gunyah  (a  native  hut) 
with  water  and  firewood  within  reach.  We  will  let  King 
take  up  the  story  at  this  point. 

"  In  travelling  the  first  day,  Mr.  Burke  seemed  very  weak, 
and  complained  of  great  pain  in  his  legs  and  back.  On  the 
second  day  he  seemed  to  be  better,  and  said  that  he  thought 
he  was  getting  stronger,  but  on  starting  did  not  go  two  miles 
before  he  said  he  could  go  no  farther.  I  persisted  in  his 
trying  to  go  on,  and  managed  to  get  him  along  several  times, 
until  I  saw  that  he  was  almost  knocked  up,  when  he  said  he 
could  not  carry  his  swag,  and  threw  all  he  had  away.  I  also 
reduced  mine,  taking  nothing  but  a  gun  and  some  powder 
and  shot,  and  a  small  pouch  and  some  matches.  On  starting 
again  we  did  not  go  far  before  Mr.  Burke  said  he  would  halt 
for  the  night ;  but  as  the  place  was  close  to  a  large  sheet  of 
water,  and  exposed  to  the  wind,  I  prevailed  upon  him  to  go  a 
little  farther,  to  the  next  reach  of  water,  where  we  camped. 
We  searched  about  and  found  a  few  small  patches  of  nardoo, 
which  I  collected  and  pounded,  and  with  a  crow  which  I  shot, 
made  a  good  evening's  meal.  From  the  time  that  we  halted 
Mr.  Burke  seemed  to  be  getting  worse,  although  he  ate  his 
supper.  He  said  he  felt  convinced  he  could  not  last  many 

—  120  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

hours,  and  gave  me  his  watch,  which  he  said  belonged  to  the 
committee,  and  a  pocket-book  to  give  to  Sir  William  Stawell, 
and  in  which  he  wrote  some  notes.  He  then  said  to  me  : 
'  I  hope  you  will  remain  with  me  here  until  I  am  quite  dead  ; 
it  is  a  comfort  to  know  that  some  one  is  by  :  but  when  I  am 
dying,  it  is  my  wish  that  you  should  place  the  pistol  in  my 
right  hand,  and  that  you  leave  me  unburied  as  I  lie.'  That 
night  he  spoke  very  little,  and  the  following  morning  I  found 
him  speechless,  or  nearly  so,  and  about  eight  o'clock  he 
expired.  I  remained  a  few  hours  there,  but  as  I  saw  there 
was  no  use  in  remaining  longer,  I  went  up  the  creek  in  search 
of  the  natives." 

Two  days  later  King  found  some  deserted  gunyahs  where- 
in was  a  bag  of  nardoo.  He  rested  here  to  recover  strength, 
and  then  returned  to  Mr.  Wills.  Unhappily  he  was  too  late 
to  save  the  latter's  life,  even  had  it  been  possible  to  do  so. 
The  ill-fated  explorer  was  lying  dead  in  his  hut,  stripped  of 
some  of  his  clothes,  which  had  evidently  been  stolen  by 
blacks.  By  his  side  was  his  diary,  in  which  he  had  written 
almost  up  to  the  last  moment,  one  characteristic  entry  allud- 
ing to  himself  as  Micawber,  "  waiting  for  something  to  turn 
up."  Bang  buried  the  body  and  then  tracked  the  natives  by 
their  footprints  in  the  sand  to  their  encampment,  where  he 
was  fortunate  in  being  received  kindly.  When  he  made  them 
understand  that  both  his  companions  were  dead  and  that  he 
was  quite  alone,  the  blackfellows  gave  him  shelter  and  food. 
But  for  his  gun  with  which  he  shot  crows,  and  some  little 
knowledge  of  medicine  that  he  was  able  to  display,  Bang 
would  eventually  have  been  turned  adrift  again.  His  powers 
of  usefulness,  however,  made  him  an  acceptable  guest,  and 
with  the  natives  he  stopped  for  some  weeks  until  the  relief 
party  came  in  sight. 

—  121  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

It  was  the  expedition  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Alfred 
William  Howitt  that  succeeded  in  discovering  King  and  the 
remains  of  Burke  and  Wills.  This  party  started  from  Mel- 
bourne, where  it  had  been  equipped  by  the  Royal  Society 
of  Victoria.  Nearly  three  months  after  the  tragic  death  of 
the  two  explorers  Howitt  picked  up  the  tracks  of  camels  and 
horses  and  found  enough  indications  to  convince  him  that  he 
was  on  the  right  trail.  At  last  his  patient  search  was  re- 
warded. In  his  diary  he  records  how,  at  the  lower  end  of  a 
large  reach  of  water  near  Cooper's  Creek,  he  learned  that  two 
of  his  men  had  found  King.  He  says  :  "A  little  farther  on 
I  found  the  party  halted,  and  immediately  went  across  to 
the  black  warleys,  where  I  found  King,  sitting  in  a  hut  that 
the  natives  had  made  for  him.  He  presented  a  melancholy 
appearance,  wasted  to  a  shadow,  and  hardly  to  be  distin- 
guished as  a  civilised  being,  except  by  the  remnants  of  clothes 
on  him.  He  seemed  exceedingly  weak,  and  I  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  follow  what  he  said.  The  natives  were  all  gathered 
round  seated  on  the  ground,  looking  with  a  most  grateful  and 
delighted  expression." 

Howitt  next  searched  for  and  found  the  remains  of  Burke 
and  Wills,  burying  them  in  the  bush  where  they  lay  and 
carving  inscriptions  on  trees  by  the  graves.  Later  on  the 
bodies  were  removed  to  Melbourne,  to  be  accorded  a  public 
funeral.  A  fine  statue  was  subsequently  erected  in  their 
honour  in  the  Victorian  capital,  while  another  memorial 
marked  the  spot  whence  the  expedition  started  on  its  ill- 
fated  journey. 

As  soon  as  Wright's  startling  message  had  reached  Mel- 
bourne the  greatest  concern  for  the  safety  of  the  missing 
explorers  had  been  displayed  in  the  colonies.  In  all  five 
separate  search  parties  were  despatched  by  the  South  Aus- 

—  122  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

tralian,  Victorian  and  Queensland  Governments,  the  leaders 
being,  in  addition  to  Mr.  Howitt,  Messrs.  McKinlay,  Norman, 
Landsborough  and  Walker.  Of  these  explorers  the  last- 
named  calls  for  particular  mention  here,  as,  like  Burke,  he 
was  a  member  of  the  Mounted  Police. 

Frederick  Walker  was  an  Inspector  in  the  Queensland 
force  when  he  was  selected  for  the  task.  He  was  an  ex- 
perienced bushman,  well  acquainted  with  the  blacks,  and 
moreover  was  a  man  of  proved  courage  and  resource.  A 
writer  has  aptly  summed  him  up  as  "  one  who  could  know 
nothing  of  what  Mirabeau  called  '  that  blockhead  of  a  word 
— impossible.' ' 

On  arrangements  being  completed  Walker  left  Rock- 
hampton  with  the  intention  of  making  his  way  to  the  Albert 
River  on  the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria,  taking  with  him  in  the  party 
a  number  of  black  troopers.  His  instructions  reached  him 
in  August  1861  ;  on  the  7th  of  the  following  month  he  was 
at  Mr.  C.  B.  Button's  station  on  the  Dawson  River,  whence 
he  followed  a  pass  through  the  mountains  to  the  Barcoo 
River.  Proceeding  north  and  north-west  Walker  came  upon 
traces  of  the  expeditions  led  by  Gregory  and  Leichhardt,  and 
found  one  or  two  new  streams  to  which  he  gave  names. 
From  the  Barkly  River  he  struck  a  tributary  of  the  Flinders, 
near  which  his  party  came  into  collision  with  the  blacks, 
several  of  the  latter  being  killed.  A  little  later,  it  now  being 
November,  one  of  his  troopers  found  Burke's  return  track 
close  to  the  junction  of  the  Norman  and  Flinders  Rivers. 
That  he  was  actually  on  the  right  scent  was  proved  conclu- 
sively the  following  morning,  when  Walker  himself  picked  up 
two  leaves  from  Burke's  memorandum  book. 

At  the  end  of  November  the  expedition  arrived  at  Morn- 
ing Inlet,  on  the  Gulf.  Three  days  later  it  reached  its  goal, 

—  123  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  Albert  River,  after  a  journey  occupying  just  over  three 
months.  As  his  object  was  to  ascertain  the  whereabouts 
of  Burke  and  Wills,  dead  or  alive,  Walker  started  back  with 
fresh  provisions  to  the  Flinders  and  took  up  the  trail  again. 
Owing  to  the  heavy  rains  and  floods  on  the  plains  the  tracks 
were  in  time  lost,  and,  assuming  that  Burke  had  gone  off 
eastward  into  Queensland,  he  struck  off  in  that  direction. 
It  was  a  futile  quest,  of  course,  for  the  missing  men  were  far  to 
the  southward,  but  a  great  deal  of  valuable  information  was 
obtained  about  the  little-known  country  to  the  north-east. 
New  rivers  and  mountains  were  discovered  and  named, 
and  the  young  police  officer  had  every  reason  to  be  satisfied 
with  his  trip.  He  returned  to  Rockhampton  in  June  1862, 
having  suffered  no  losses  except  a  few  horses. 

There  was  no  flourish  of  trumpets  about  Walker's  ex- 
pedition. It  was  a  workmanlike  performance  carried  out 
in  a  modest  yet  most  efficient  manner.  Every  detail  of  the 
journey  was  carefully  thought  out,  and  the  thoroughness  of 
the  organisation  contrasted  strongly  with  the  laxity  that 
was  apparent  in  Burke  and  Wills'  expedition.  Hewitt's 
comment  was  :  "  Perhaps  none  of  the  explorers  of  this  period 
did  their  work  more  ably  ;  certainly  none  received  less  com- 
mendation." Having  completed  his  task  Walker  resumed 
his  police  duties  and  dropped  back  quietly  into  official  life. 

Colonel  Peter  Egerton-Warburton,  whose  explorations 
in  the  centre  of  the  continent  were  of  a  later  date,  was  the 
well-known  Commissioner  of  Police  for  South  Australia.  He 
held  this  high  office  from  December  1853  to  February  1867. 
After  several  preliminary  journeys  into  the  ulterior  Colonel 
Warburton,  in  1873,  headed  a  party  which  was  commissioned 
to  search  for  cattle  country  to  the  west  of  the  Overland 
Telegraph  line,  in  the  heart  of  the  inhospitable  desert  coun- 

—  124  — 


THE  POLICE  AS  EXPLORERS 

try  between  South  and  Western  Australia.  For  a  man  of 
sixty  years  of  age  it  was  no  light  undertaking,  but  no  one 
doubted  that  the  veteran  explorer  would  succeed.  The  ex- 
pedition, which  was  a  small  one  with  camels  for  transport 
work,  plunged  boldly  into  the  interior  and  for  nearly  a  year 
remained  unheard  of.  Then,  when  the  gravest  fears  for  its 
safety  were  being  entertained,  a  travel-stained  horseman 
one  day  rode  into  a  station  on  the  De  Grey  River  in  Western 
Australia  to  report  that  the  explorers  were  in  camp  a  hundred 
and  seventy  miles  away  and  in  dire  straits. 

A  relief  party  at  once  set  off  to  their  assistance.  They 
found  the  Colonel  and  his  companions  almost  at  their  last 
gasp  through  the  terrible  privations  they  had  undergone,  and 
with  barely  more  than  two  days'  store  of  camel's  flesh  to 
live  on.  Thanks  to  this  timely  aid  a  tragedy  was  averted. 
The  Western  Australian  Government  took  the  expedition 
under  its  special  care,  and,  having  supplied  all  their  wants, 
sent  on  the  members  to  Adelaide. 

Among  other  Mounted  Police  who  went  exploring  in  the 
seventies  was  Sub-Inspector  Robert  Johnstone,  who  accom- 
panied Mr.  George  Elphinstone  Dalrymple  in  the  North- 
East  Coast  Expedition  organised  by  the  Queensland  Govern- 
ment. With  Johnstone  went  thirteen  black  troopers,  their 
number  being  good  testimony  to  their  worth.  Leaving 
Cardwell  in  September  1873,  the  party  proceeded  by  boat  up 
the  coast  and  was  successful  in  discovering  some  very  valu- 
able tracts  of  land.  New  ranges  of  mountains  and  rivers 
were  also  found  and  named.  A  feature  of  this  journey  was 
the  marked  hostility  of  the  natives,  who  were  mostly  canni- 
bals and  of  a  warlike  disposition.  Johnstone  and  his 
troopers  had  had  experience  of  these  before,  when  a  vessel, 
the  Maria,  had  been  wrecked  near  the  mouth  of  the  Moresby 

—  125  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

i 

River,  and  they  had  been  despatched  to  succour  the 
crew. 

On  this  occasion  they  were  unpleasantly  reminded  of  the 
former  trip.  Seeing  Johnstone  and  others  of  the  party  com- 
ing up  the  river,  the  blacks  gathered  round  a  certain  point, 
evidently  prepared  to  make  trouble.  They  were  painted 
white  from  head  to  waist  in  order  to  look  like  white  men, 
the  legs  being  similarly  decorated  from  the  knees  downward. 
To  add  to  the  effect  they  endeavoured  to  imitate  white 
men's  voices  and  lure  the  boat's  crew  ashore.  As  this 
manoeuvre  failed  the  blacks  dug  up  the  body  of  one  of  the 
murdered  Maria  men  and  went  through  the  process  of  the 
massacre  in  pantomime.  The  police  troopers,  however, 
were  not  easily  daunted  by  these  menaces.  The  party 
presented  a  bold  front  and  passed  on  its  way  without 
hindrance. 

What  excellent  work  the  Mounted  Police  have  performed 
in  more  or  less  subordinate  roles  in  such  expeditions  is  for 
the  most  part  tucked  away  in  official  records .  To  be  detailed 
for  exploration  duty  has  been  "  all  in  the  day's  work  "  with 
them,  and  nothing  that  any  one  need  brag  about.  But 
officer  and  trooper  alike,  who  have  faced  the  hardships  and 
perils  of  many  months'  journeying  through  bush  and  desert, 
through  a  country  as  difficult  in  many  respects  as  any  in  the 
world,  are  deserving  of  a  full  measure  of  praise.  The  Aus- 
tralian Mounted  Police  are  a  picked  body  of  men,  with  a 
high  reputation  won  on  many  fields  ;  let  not  this  less-known 
side  of  their  work  pass  unrecognised. 


—  126  — 


CHAPTER  VIII 

BUSHKANGING   DAYS. — I 

A  new  era  of  lawlessness — Native-born  bushrangers — Causes  of  the  out- 
break— False  hero-worship — Captain  Thunderbolt's  generosity — 
Francis  Gardiner — Taking  to  "  the  road  " — Capture  by  Sergeant 
Middleton — Trooper  Hosie  shot — Gardiner's  rescue — John  Piesley, 
bushranger — "  I've  come  for  '  Troubadour  '  " — A  gold  escort  en 
route — Mr.  Horsington  and  Mr.  Hewitt  "  bailed  up  " — The  great  gold 
escort  robbery — At  the  Eugowra  Rocks — Inspector  Sir  Frederick 
Pottinger — First  successes — An  encounter  with  Gardiner — More 
arrests — Fordyce,  Bow  and  Manns — A  death  sentence — What  became 
of  the  treasure  ? 

r  I  ^HE  period  of  the  sixties,  with  its  continuous  tale  of 
•*-  "  robbery  under  arms,"  is  a  notable  one  in  the  annals 
of  the  Mounted  Police.  It  was  a  period  that  saw  the  birth  of 
a  new  era  of  lawlessness,  of  a  reign  of  terror  surpassing 
anything  of  the  like  before.  Up  to  this  time  the  Australian 
bushrangers  had  been  almost  exclusively  convicts  or  ex- 
convicts.  How  this  class  of  criminals  came  into  being  and 
flourished  for  many  years  has  been  told  in  a  previous  chapter. 
By  stern  repressive  measures  bushranging  was  kept  under 
in  those  colonies  where  it  had  raged  most  virulently,  but 
although  so  much  was  done  this  legacy  of  convictism  was  not 
to  be  entirely  stamped  out.  With  the  discovery  of  the  gold- 
fields  came  a  recrudescence  of  highway  robbery  on  a  larger 
and  bolder  scale  than  heretofore,  and  the  appearance  on  the 
stage  of  a  new  type  of  outlaw.  The  bushranger  who  now 
terrorised  the  neighbourhood,  plundering  wayfarers,  "  stick- 

—  127  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

ing  up  "  gold  escorts  or  banks  in  busy  townships,  was  Aus- 
tralian born  in  the  majority  of  instances. 

The  main  reason  for  this  extraordinary  outbreak  is  not 
far  to  seek.  In  the  rush  to  the  goldfields  the  towns  and  out- 
lying settlements  had  been  depopulated  at  first,  but  as  the 
fever  of  excitement  died  down  large  numbers  returned  to 
more  regular  occupations,  and  in  every  direction  an  impetus 
was  given  to  trade.  It  was  an  unnatural  impetus,  however, 
and  the  violent  reaction  that  followed  was  inevitable.  By 
1860  there  was  great  dearth  of  work  and  consequent  distress. 
This  period  of  depression  was  made  the  excuse  for  defying 
the  law  by  many  of  the  more  turbulent  spirits.  And  for  those 
who  elected  to  pursue  a  life  of  crime  the  way  was  easy.  In 
and  around  the  diggings  rich  hauls  of  gold  were  to  be  made 
by  a  man  with  a  good  horse  under  him,  and  pluck  enough  to 
cry  "  bail  up  !  "  x  while  in  the  country  districts  were  scores  of 
sympathisers  and  helpers  to  enable  him  to  baffle  the  police. 
Not  a  few  of  the  small  farmers  scattered  about  in  the  bush 
were  old  "  lags,"  men  who  had  worked  out  their  sentences 
and  settled  on  the  land.  These  formed  a  tainted  class,  in 
whom  the  predatory  instincts  were  still  strong  and  whose 
children  inherited  the  same  traits. 

While  there  were  thus  several  inducements  to  the  would- 


1  Mr.  G.  E.  Boxall  (Story  of  the  Australian  Bushrangers)  explains  the 
origin  of  this  term  as  follows  :  "  The  first  supply  of  horned  cattle  for  Aus- 
tralia was  obtained  from  Cape  Town,  South  Africa,  big-boned,  slab-sided 
animals  with  enormous  horns.  These  animals  are  much  more  active  than 
the  fine-boned,  heavy-bodied,  short-horned  or  other  fine  breeds,  but  they 
can  never  be  properly  tamed.  It  is  always  unsafe  to  milk  one  of  these 
cows  unless  her  head  is  fastened  in  a  '  bail  '  (a  wooden  barrier),  and  her  leg 
tied.  When  driving  the  cows  into  the  bail  it  was  the  custom  to  order  them 
to  '  bail  up.'  It  was  also  usual  for  bullock  drivers  when  yoking  their 
teams  to  call  out '  bail  up  '  to  the  bullocks,  although  no  bail  was  used  for 
this  purpose.  The  words  were  in  constant  use  all  over  Australia, 
and  were  adopted  by  the  early  bushrangers  in  the  sense  of  stand.'  "  - 

—  128  — 


BUSHEANGING  DAYS 

be  bushranger — prospects  of  fat  prizes,  secure  hiding-places 
in  the  hills  and  ready  helpers — there  were  also  a  spice  of 
danger  and  a  glamour  about  the  calling  that  attracted  the 
adventurous.  Most  of  the  men  who  took  to  the  road  at 
this  time  were  young  in  years,  several  of  them,  indeed,  were 
quite  lads.  That  they  were  old  in  crime  is  easily  accounted 
for  by  the  vicious  nature  of  their  surroundings.  Among  the 
youth  of  Australia  the  bushrangers  of  other  days  had  been 
invested  with  a  false  halo  of  romance.  Writing  on  this  point 
Mr.  G.  E.  Boxall  says  :  "  Many  of  the  exploits  of  the  historic 
highwaymen  of  old  were  told  as  actual  facts  in  the  careers 
of  some  Australian  bushrangers,  with  just  sufficient  varia- 
tion to  adapt  them  to  local  purposes.  One  of  the  ancient 
superstitions  introduced  into  Australia  by  these  story-tellers 
was  that  the  highwaymen  robbed  the  rich  to  give  to  the  poor. 
I  have  no  desire  to  raise  any  doubts  as  to  the  generosity  and 
benevolence  of  Robin  Hood,  but  I  can  find  no  evidence  of 
any  such  beneficence  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  Australian 
bushrangers.  No  doubt  they  got  their  money  easily,  and 
spent  it  recklessly.  But  in  the  course  of  their  dealings 
they  did  not  pause  to  inquire  whether  the  person  they 
robbed  was  rich  or  poor." 

One  of  the  isolated  instances  of  generosity  which  might 
be  cited  in  this  connection  is  recorded  of  Frederick  Ward 
the  notorious  "  Captain  Thunderbolt."  On  a  certain 
occasion  he  "  bailed  up  "  a  German  band  in  a  gap  in  the 
mountains  and,  after  making  them  play  to  him,  i/ook  every 
penny  they  possessed.  The  leader  of  the  musicians  pleaded 
tearfully  for  the  money  to  be  returned,  as  it  was  their  all  and 
had  been  hard  earned.  Thunderbolt  at  last  promised  that 
if  he  succeeded  in  robbing  the  principal  winner  at  the 

Tamworth  Races,  a  man  for  whom  he  was  on  the  look-out, 

—  129  —  K 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

he  would  make  restitution.  He  made  the  expected  haul 
shortly  after,  and  faithfully  kept  his  word  to  the  Germans, 
sending  them  their  few  pounds  through  the  post  to  an  ad- 
dress they  had  given.  Such  an  instance,  however,  standing 
almost  by  itself,  does  not  count  for  much.  It  may  be  set 
down  as  much  to  caprice  as  to  kindness  of  heart.  It  is  only 
too  true  that  the  bush  robber  spared  none  hi  his  greed  for 
gold,  and  as  a  rule  was  as  brutal  and  callous  in  his  methods 
as  any  of  his  humbler  fellow-criminals. 

The  first  to  gain  notoriety  in  this  second  generation 
of  bushrangers  was  Francis  Gardiner.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
no  other  Australian  highwayman — and  he  had  many 
imitators — made  his  name  so  feared  in  his  day.  Possessed 
of  daring  and  audacity  to  an  unusual  degree,  he  carried  out 
some  big  coups  successfully,  and  for  a  long  time  snapped 
his  fingers  in  the  face  of  a  police  who  were  at  their  wits' 
end  to  capture  him.  A  native  of  Boro  Creek,  near  Goul- 
burn,  New  South  Wales,  Gardiner  (his  real  name,  by  the 
way,  is  given  as  Christie)  first  came  into  public  notice  on 
the  Wombat  Flat  gold  diggings.  Before  this,  however, 
he  was  known  to  the  police  of  his  own  colony  and  that  of 
Victoria  as  a  bold  horse-thief.  In  the  early  days  of  Bal- 
larat  he  had  been  sentenced  to  five  years'  imprisonment  for 
this  offence,  a  term  he  had  shortened  considerably  by  break- 
ing gaol.  Not  long  afterwards  he  was  again  at  his  old  game, 
and  this  time  was  sent  to  Cockatoo  Island  for  seven  years. 
From  this  place  he  was  liberated  on  ticket-of -leave,  and  to 
all  appearance  he  now  seemed  disposed  to  live  by  honest 
work.  With  a  man  named  Fogg  he  started  a  butchering 
business  at  Wombat  Flat.  Unfortunately  this  migration 
had  taken  him  out  of  his  proper  district,  and  caused  him 
to  infringe  the  regulations.  This  brought  him  into  conflict 

—  130  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

with  the  police,  and  Gardiner  was  next  heard  of  "on  the 
road." 

It  was  not  long  before  a  gang  had  gathered  round  this 
new  leader.  There  were  many  kindred  spirits  in  and  around 
the  goldfields  who  were  ready  to  try  their  luck  at  bush- 
ranging,  and  the  police  were  quickly  made  aware  that  they 
had  no  light  task  before  them.  The  number  of  the  gang, 
moreover,  was  always  fluctuating.  Its  members  could  never 
be  clearly  defined.  Some  of  the  more  venturesome  ones 
broke  away  at  times  to  act  singly  or  in  couples,  and  were 
themselves  the  nuclei  of  fresh  gangs,  In  their  places 
others  were  soon  forthcoming.  Still,  in  his  own  district 
Gardiner  was  the  leading  spirit,  and  the  authorities  strained 
every  nerve  to  secure  his  capture. 

Remembering  Gardiner's  close  association  with  Fogg,  the 
police  at  last  determined  to  watch  the  latter  in  the  hope  of 
trapping  their  quarry.  The  expected  chance  came  in  July 
of  1861,  when,  as  a  result  of  the  "  shadowing,"  they  learned 
that  the  bushranger  had  been  seen  at  his  friend's  house. 
Fogg  was  now  back  at  his  old  homestead  on  the  Fish  River, 
near  the  Abercrombie.  The  news  came  to  Sergeant  Middle- 
ton,  at  the  neighbouring  police  station  of  Tuena,  and  with 
Trooper  Hosie  he  rode  out  to  make  the  capture.  Everything 
went  well  until  the  two  appeared  at  the  door  of  the  farm. 
Then  Fogg's  wife  gave  a  cry  of  alarm  and  ran  back  into 
the  house.  When  the  sergeant  followed  and  was  on  the  point 
of  entering  an  inner  room  he  was  met  by  a  shot  that  happily 
went  wide.  He  guessed  rightly  that  his  man  was  within. 

Without  hesitating  Middleton  pluckily  advanced,  firing 
his  pistol  as  he  drew  aside  the  hanging  at  the  entrance. 
At  the  same  moment  the  man  inside  fired  also,  and  this 
time  wounded  the  officer  in  the  mouth.  Had  not  his  pistol 

—  131  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

been  empty  the  sergeant  would  certainly  have  tried  to  finish 
the  job  single-handed,  but  in  the  circumstances  he  deemed 
it  wiser  to  fall  back  upon  Hosie.  As  investigation  showed 
that  there  was  no  back  exit,  they  had  their  man  in  a  trap, 
and  they  decided  to  rush  the  room  together.  Gardiner, 
whom  they  had  thus  surprised,  was  expecting  nothing  less. 
When  the  two  suddenly  burst  in  upon  him  his  pistol  rang 
out  and  Hosie  fell  forward  on  the  floor. 

Seeing  that  he  had  hit  one,  and  knowing  that  the  other 
was  wounded,  Gardiner  flung  himself  at  the  sergeant  who 
stood  in  the  doorway.  But  Middleton  was  too  tough  a  nut 
to  crack  easily,  and  the  bushranger  found  himself  engaged 
in  a  fierce  struggle.  In  the  tussle  Middleton  found  a  heavy- 
handled  hunting  crop  that  he  carried  a  most  useful  weapon. 
Then  Hosie,  who  was  not  badly  wounded,  but  had  been  par- 
tially stunned,  got  to  his  feet  in  time  to  lend  useful  aid. 
Between  them  the  sergeant  and  the  trooper  got  Gardiner 
to  the  ground,  where  the  handcuffs  were  quickly  snapped 
round  his  wrists. 

The  next  step  to  be  taken  was  to  convey  the  prisoner  to 
the  security  of  a  police  cell.  As  Fogg  averred  that  he  had  no 
horse  on  the  place,  or  any  one  who  could  act  as  messenger, 
it  fell  to  Middleton  to  ride  off  to  the  nearest  township  of 
Bigga  for  assistance.  Although  weak  through  much  loss 
of  blood  he  mounted  his  horse  and  set  off,  while  Hosie, 
in  little  better  case  himself,  stood  guard  over  the  bushranger. 
The  latter,  it  was  now  found,  had  been  wounded  by  the 
sergeant  in  the  exchange  of  shots,  and  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  blows  of  the  hunting  crop.  At  first  it  was  believed 
that  Gardiner  was  so  badly  hurt  as  to  be  dying,  but  he  re- 
gained sufficient  strength  shortly  after  to  enable  Hosie  to 
carry  out  his  superior's  instructions.  These  were  that 

—  132  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

he  should  start  out  on  the  road  with  his  prisoner  as  soon 
as  possible,  with  a  view  to  meeting  the  police  party  from 


What  followed  from  this  stage  was  for  long  the  subject 
of  controversy.  By  many  people  it  was  asserted  that 
Hosie  accepted  a  bribe  from  Gardiner  to  let  him  go  free. 
This  story  obtained  credence  in  many  quarters,  and  has  been 
repeated  again  and  again  by  those  whose  object  has  been 
the  detraction  of  the  police.  No  doubt  the  Australian 
Mounted  Police  have  had  their  black  sheep,  men  who  have 
sold  their  honour  for  money  or  otherwise  disgraced  their  uni- 
form, but  Trooper  Hosie  was  not  of  this  breed.  We  have 
the  best  authority  for  believing  that  his  story  as  given  in 
evidence  at  the  subsequent  inquiry  was  true  in  every  detail, 
and  that  Gardiner's  escape  from  custody  was  due  to  no  fault 
of  his.  Hosie's  explanation  was  as  follows — 

"  In  about  an  hour  and  a  half,"  he  says,  after  narrating 
how  the  sergeant  had  left  him,  "  I  found  myself  getting 
faint  and  called  upon  Fogg  to  take  Gardiner  in  charge,  which 
he  did,  and  when  I  recovered  I  found  Gardiner  in  the  same 
place  as  when  I  fainted.  I  do  not  know  whether  he  made 
any  attempt  to  get  away  from  Fogg,  but  shortly  after  I 
recovered  he  tried  to  get  away  from  me.  He  attempted  to 
throw  me  down,  and  we  struggled  together  for  a  quarter  of 
an  hour,  when  he  got  away  and  rushed  towards  the  river, 
which  was  flooded,  when  he  turned  and  got  a  sapling  and 
rushed  at  me  with  it.  I  fired  at  him  and  overcame  him. 
Fogg  then  assisted  me  again,  and  we  took  him  back  to  the 
house  and  gave  him  some  refreshment.  As  Middleton  did 
not  return  with  assistance,  I  thought  he  must  have  died  on 
the  road,  and  I  asked  Fogg  to  assist  me  to  take  Gardiner  to 
Bigga,  which  he  did,  and  got  two  horses,  one  for  himself 

—  133  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

and  the  other  for  Gardiner  to  ride.  Fogg  led  Gardiner's 
horse,  and  I  rode  behind.  When  we  had  got  about  three 
miles  and  three-quarters  on  the  road  towards  Bigga  we  were 
attacked  by  two  bushrangers,  one  of  whom  I  believe  to  have 
been  Piesley,  who  ordered  Fogg  to  let  go  Gardiner's  horse, 
or  they  would  shoot  him.  He  did  so.  Then  they  fired  at  me, 
and  I  fired  at  them — the  only  charge  I  had — when  they  both 
rushed  at  me  and  covered  me  with  their  revolvers.  Fogg 
rushed  up  and  begged  of  them  not  to  shoot  me,  but  to  spare 
my  life,  and  I  believe  they  would  have  shot  me  only  for 
Fogg's  interference.  They  then  left,  taking  Gardiner  with 
them.  After  they  left,  Fogg  accompanied  me  for  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  on  the  road  for  protection." 

The  man,  John  Piesley,  referred  to  above,  was  one  of 
Gardiner's  associates  who  later  entered  upon  a  career  of  bush- 
ranging  by  himself.  On  the  Southern  Road  particularly  he 
was  concerned  in  a  large  number  of  "  sticking  up  "  cases, 
including  that  of  the  mail-coach  from  Gundagai.  But 
although  highly  successful  in  most  of  his  raids,  Piesley 
was  not  destined  to  enjoy  his  freedom  long.  The  brutal 
murder  of  a  settler  named  Benyon,  a  man  against  whom  he 
had  an  old  grudge,  led  to  his  pursuit  and  capture,  and  in 
March  1862  he  was  hung  at  Bathurst. 

Gardiner,  in  the  meantime,  soon  made  it  clear  to  the 
world  that  he  was  still  alive.  With  such  well-known  and 
desperate  followers  as  John  Gilbert,  Ben  Hall,  Jack 
O'Mealley  and  John  Dunn,  he  ranged  over  an  extensive  dis- 
trict, making  a  series  of  robberies  that  the  small  force  of 
police  were  powerless  to  guard  against.  At  this  time  the 
gang's  favourite  hiding-place  was  in  the  Weddin  Mountains. 
Whenever  the  officers  of  the  law  did  get  on  the  track  of  the 
offenders  the  odds  were  usually  against  them  by  reason 

—  134  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

of  the  superiority  of  the  bushrangers'  horses.  Time  and  time 
again  the  Mounted  Police  were  obliged  to  give  up  the  chase 
because  their  steeds  failed  them.  With  the  stables  of  the 
whole  country  to  pick  from  the  outlaws  kept  themselves 
provided  with  the  fastest  and  strongest  horses,  enabling 
them  to  race  back  to  their  strongholds  in  the  hills  and  laugh 
at  pursuit. 

Gilbert  and  Ben  Hall,  in  particular,  each  had  a  good  eye 
for  a  racehorse.  The  latter  one  day  walked  into  a  station  at 
Croggan,  on  the  Bland  Plains,  and  bailed  it  up  single-handed. 
There  were  three  men  and  a  boy  in  an  outhouse  ;  these 
he  tied  with  rope  and  laid  upon  the  floor.  Then  he  presented 
himself  at  the  house  of  the  station  proprietor.  "  I've  come 
for  'Troubadour,'  Mr.  Chisholm,"  he  said,  naming  a  famous 
horse  which  that  gentleman  kept  in  his  stable  ;  "no  non- 
sense, please  ;  I  mean  to  have  him."  And  a  little  later  Hall 
rode  off  on  his  prize,  at  the  same  time  taking  with  him 
another  horse  that  had  pleased  his  fancy. 

The  most  sensational  feat  of  Gardiner  was  the  "  sticking 
up  "  of  the  gold  escort  on  its  way  from  the  Lachlan  diggings 
to  Sydney.  Once  every  seven  or  ten  days  large  quantities 
of  gold  and  specie  were  sent  by  road  to  the  capital,  mostly  to 
the  banks,  the  mail  coach  in  which  the  boxes  were  deposited 
being  guarded  by  a  body  of  mounted  police.1  Sometimes 
the  value  of  these  consignments  was  very  high.  One  such 
escort  from  the  Lachlan  fields  carried  £34,000.  The  tempta- 
tion thus  offered  to  the  bushrangers  was  very  strong  indeed. 
Rarely  was  there  a  guard  of  more  than  four  or  five  constables, 
and  along  the  road  were  several  places  where  an  ambuscade 

1  In  the  early  days  of  the  diggings  the  gold  was  deposited  in  strongly 
made  wooden  boxes  on  which  the  Government  seal  was  affixed.  Later  on 
smaller  round  iron  boxes  took  the  place  of  these,  as  being  safer  and  more 
convenient  to  handle. 

—  135  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

could  be  posted.  How  effectively  advantage  was  taken  of 
one  of  these  points  will  be  seen. 

Writing  of  his  own  experience  as  a  digger  in  these  stirring 
times,  Mr.  G.  E.  Boxall  gives  us  a  vivid  pen-picture  of  a  gold 
escort  of  1865.1  He  says  :  "  We  [himself  and  two  mates] 
were  travelling  along  the  road  leading  from  Blaney  to  Bath- 
urst,  near  Back  Creek,  when  we  saw  the  Government  Gold 
Escort  in  the  distance.  The  police  authorities  of  New  South 
Wales  had  learned  a  lesson  from  the  great  escort  robbery  of 
1862,  and  no  longer  mounted  all  the  police  on  the  coach  or 
drag  in  which  the  gold  was  conveyed  to  Sydney.  At  the 
place  we  had  arrived  at  the  road,  a  chain  and  a  half  (99  feet) 
wide,  had  been  cleared  through  a  stretch  of  heavy  forest 
timber.  It  ran  as  straight  as  possible  as  far  as  the  eye 
could  reach,  and  was  bordered  on  either  side  by  a  dense 
growth  of  timber  and  scrub  rising  to  a  height  of  from  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  feet  like  a  wall  of  greenery.  In  the 
centre  of  the  roadway  was  a  metalled  or  gravelled  road  about 
fifteen  feet  wide.  The  remainder  on  either  side  was  graded 
to  near  the  timber  lines,  where  a  small  cutting  to  carry  off 
surface  water  was  made.  We  rode  on  the  soft  grassy  side 
elopes,  and  left  the  metalled  or  gravelled  road  for  vehicles. 

"  It  was  in  the  centre  of  this  gorge  in  the  forest  that  we 
first  sighted  the  escort.  First  rode  a  single  trooper  ;  at 
fifty  yards'  distance  came  two  more,  then,  at  about  the  same 
distance,  came  the  escort  cart,  drawn  by  four  horses,  the 
driver  and  another  policeman  sitting  on  the  front  seat,  while 
another  trooper  sat  behind.  A  mounted  trooper  also  rode  on 
each  side  of  the  cart.  Fifty  yards  farther  back  were  two 
more  troopers,  while  the  rear  was  brought  up  by  another 
single  trooper.  The  men  had  their  carbines  ready  in  their 

1  The  Story  of  the  Australian  Bushranger*. 
-136- 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

hands,  the  butts  resting  on  their  thighs.  When  the  leading 
trooper  came  within  hail  of  us  he  cried  '  Halt  !  '  and  raised 
his  rifle.  We  halted.  The  two  troopers  behind  him  came 
forward  at  a  rapid  pace  until  they  were  near  enough  to  sup- 
port him,  if  necessary.  The  cart  stopped,  and  the  other 
troopers  gathered  round  it  ready  to  defend  it. 

"  The  sergeant  in  charge  inquired  what  our  names  were, 
where  we  were  going,  and  what  was  our  business.  We  told 
him.  He  said  our  horses  were  superior  to  those  usually 
ridden  by  diggers.  We  replied  that  we  didn't  care  about 
riding  old  screws.  He  asked  whether  the  two  guns  we  car- 
ried were  loaded.  We  informed  him  that  one  was  loaded 
with  shot  in  case  we  came  across  a  duck  or  a  pigeon.  He 
told  us  to  sit  up  straight  and  follow  him.  Then  he  motioned 
to  the  two  troopers  just  behind  him.  He  led  the  way  while 
the  troopers  followed  behind  us.  We  all  kept  to  the  side 
of  the  road  ;  the  cart  having  been  drawn  up  on  the  other 
side.  The  other  troopers  sat  on  their  horses,  carbine  in  hand, 
as  we  passed.  It  was  a  most  impressive  show  of  force  out 
there  in  the  bush.  The  sergeant  and  two  troopers  conducted 
us  for  about  a  hundred  yards  past  'the  cart  and  then  pulled 
up.  The  sergeant  said  it  was  difficult  to  tell  what  men  were 
by  their  appearance.  He  advised  us  to  be  very  careful,  and 
asked  if  we  had  any  gold  or  money  with  us.  He  then  wished 
us  good-day,  after^  telling  us  to  ride  straight  on  and  not 
attempt  to  turn  back." 

Mr.  Boxall  adds  byway  of  reflection  that  in  talking  the 
matter  over  in  camp  later,  he  and  his  mates  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  despite  the  improvement  in  the  escort  service 
it  would  not  have  been  impossible  to  rob  the  escort  again. 
By  holding  the  attention  of  the  foremost  troopers  in  much 
the  same  way  as  described  and  posting  others  of  its  members 

—  137  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

in  the  scrub,  a  gang  of  bushrangers  could  have  shot  down  the 
policejwith  little  difficulty.  However,  this  protection  for  the 
escort  proved  to  be  sufficient,  for  there  is  no  record  of  its 
having  been  ever  plundered  again. 

Before  the  story  of  the  great  gold  escort  robbery  is  told 
mention  must  be  made  of  another  affair  in  which  Gardiner 
was  concerned.  It  is  chiefly  important  as  having  been  partly 
the  means  of  securing  his  ultimate  conviction.  Early  in 
March  of  1862  a  storekeeper  of  Lambing  Flat  named  Horsing- 
ton,  was  driving  from  the  township  of  Little  Wombat  to  his 
home  with  his  wife  and  another  resident  named  Hewitt. 
The  last-named  rode  behind  the  vehicle  on  horseback.  The 
party  had  only  proceeded  a  few  miles  when  Gardiner  and 
three  companions  jumped  out  from  the  bush  with  the  cry  of 
"  bail  up  !  "  Without  any  preamble  the  cart  was  turned 
into  a  side  track  and  the  captives  were  conducted  to  a  remote 
spot  free  from  possibility  of  observation.  The  bushrangers 
had  knowledge  that  the  two  men  were  worth  plucking,  and 
they  were  rewarded  with  plunder  to  the  amount  of  about 
£1,000.  Having  taken  this  and  sundry  articles,  including 
a  saddle  and  whip,  the  gang  made  off.  Messrs.  Horsington 
and  Hewitt  on  their  part  lost  no  time  in  rousing  the  police, 
but  although  a  search  party  rode  out  no  traces  of  the  robbers 
could  be  found. 

It  was  only  three  months  later  that  Gardiner  brought 
off  his  great  coup.  On  a  Sunday  morning  in  June,  the 
15th  of  the  month,  the  mail-coach  with  its  escort  set  out  as 
usual  from  Forbes,  the  centre  of  the  Lachlan  goldfields. 
It  was  driven  by  Johnny  Fagan,  a  well-known  and  popular 
character.  In  charge  of  the  escort  was  Sergeant  Condell, 
who  sat  by  the  driver's  side,  the  other  police  being  Senior- 
Constable  Henry  Moran,  Constable  William  Haviland,  and  a 

-138- 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

fourth  trooper  whose  name  is  not  given.  These  rode  inside 
the  vehicle.  The  consignment  carried  in  the  coach  comprised 
£700  in  cash  and  2,067  oz.  ISdwts.  of  gold  for  the  Oriental 
Bank  ;  521  oz.  13  dwts.  6  grs.  for  the  Bank  of  New  South 
Wales  ;  and  £3,000  in  cash  and  129  oz.  for  the  Commercial 
Banking  Company.  The  total  value  was  placed  at  £14,000. 
In  addition  to  this  treasure  there  were,  of  course,  several 
mail-bags,  in  which  were  letters  and  packets  containing 
various  sums  of  money. 

With  no  suspicion  of  impending  danger  the  mail-coach 
rattled  briskly  along  the  road  towards  Sydney.  It  was  just 
before  noon  when  it  started,  and  five  hours  elapsed  before 
the  first  warning  was  experienced.  Just  past  a  place  called 
Coobang,  where  the  road  begins  to  run  between  the  Eugowra 
range  of  rocks,  two  drays  drawn  by  bullocks  were  found  stand- 
ing in  the  path.  No  teamsters  were  to  be  seen.  In  itself 
there  was  nothing  very  alarming  about  this  occurrence,  and 
the  escort  turned  sharply  into  the  narrow  passage  between 
the  drays  and  the  rocks.  Owing  to  the  limited  space  and 
the  curve  of  the  roadway  Pagan  reined  in  his  horses  to  a 
walk. 

Then  unexpectedly  the  attack  began.  From  behind  a 
group  of  rocks  appeared  six  men  conspicuous  in  red  shirts 
and  red  caps,  and  with  their  faces  blackened.  Before  the 
police  could  raise  their  carbines  these  poured  a  volley  into 
the  coach,  wounding  the  sergeant  and  Constable  Moran  and 
drilling  a  hole  through  Johnny  Pagan's  cabbage-tree  hat. 
Immediately  after  this  discharge  another  half-dozen  men  took 
the  places  of  the  other  party  and  fired  a  second  volley,  which 
had  the  effect  of  causing  the  horses  to  take  fright  and  capsize 
the  coach.  The  police,  thus  taken  by  surprise,  fired  back  at 
the  bushrangers  as  quickly  as  possible,  but  as  they  were  too 

—  139  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

exposed  in  the  open  they  now  sought  cover  in  the  bush  at  the 
side  of  the  road.  From  this  vantage  point  they  endeavoured 
to  hold  their  own,  but  the  numbers  of  their  enemies  made  it 
advisable  to  beat  a  retreat  and  seek  assistance. 

While,  therefore,  the  exultant  bushrangers  were  busy 
plundering  the  coach  and  packing  the  gold  boxes  on  their 
horses,  Sergeant  Condell,  Pagan  and  the  three  troopers 
made  their  way  in  the  gathering  darkness  to  Mr.  Clements' 
station,  near  at  hand.  The  squatter  at  once  despatched  a 
messenger  to  Forbes  to  acquaint  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger,1 
the  Inspector  in  charge  of  the  police  there,  with  the  news. 
This  officer  with  all  promptitude  organised  a  party  of 
troopers  and  black  trackers,  and  by  two  o'clock  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  was  on  the  scene  of  the  outrage.  The  trail 
of  the  bushrangers  was  picked  up  and  followed,  the  troopers 
eventually  coming  upon  the  remains  of  a  fire  in  which  were  the 
charred  remnants  of  the  red  shirts,  caps  and  masks.  In  the 
vicinity  were  found  the  mail-bags,  ripped  open,  some  empty 
boxes  and  a  litter  of  papers  and  letters.  From  the  direction 
of  the  hoof-marks  the  trackers  concluded  that  the  gang  had 
ridden  towards  their  customary  haunt  in  the  Weddin  Moun- 
tains. 

Sir  Frederick  Pottinger  and  his  men  pushed  on  in  pursuit 
with  all  speed,  but  the  police  horses  were  no  match  for  those 
of  the  bushrangers.  Before  anything  of  real  value  could  be 
accomplished  the  party  was  forced  to  return  to  Forbes  for 
fresh  mounts.  In  the  meantime,  the  mail-coach  was  re- 
horsed  and  sent  forward  on  its  journey  with  such  of  the  mail 
as  was  recovered  untouched.  Soon  after  leaving  Orange, 

1  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger  had  joined  the  Mounted  Police  in  the  days  of 
the  Southern  Patrol,  then  being  known  as  Trooper  Parker.  He  assumed 
his  real  name  on  succeeding  to  the  baronetcy. 

—  140  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

however,  another  tragedy  occurred.  Constable  Haviland, 
who  was  seated  inside  the  vehicle  with  his  fellow-trooper 
Moran  and  two  passengers,  shot  himself  dead  with  a  revol- 
ver in  circumstances  that  left  little  doubt  that  the  affair  was 
due  to  accident. 

From  Orange  and  Forbes  the  news  of  the  escort  robbery 
at]fthe  Eugowra  Rocks  spread  quickly  over  the  country,  and 
the  greatest  excitement  prevailed.  Captain  M'Lerie,  the 
Inspector-General  of  Police  in  Sydney,  supplemented  Pottin- 
ger's  efforts  by  ordering  out  several  other  superintendents 
and  inspectors  into  the  field.  From  Bathurst  went  Super- 
intendent Morrissett  with  his  troopers,  and  from  Yass, 
Superintendent  Battye.  These,  and  other  bodies  of  police, 
scoured  the  district  as  thoroughly  as  could  be  managed,  but 
without  avail  until  several  days  had  elapsed.  At  the  same 
time  a  reward  of  £1,000,  with  the  promise  of  pardon  to  an 
informer  if  an  accomplice,  was  offered  by  the  Government.1 

The  first  to  get  upon  the  actual  trail  of  the  bushrangers 
was  Senior-Sergeant  (afterwards  Superintendent)  Sanderson, 
a  member  of  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger's  party.  It  was  well- 
known  by  now  that  Frank  Gardiner  was  the  leader  of  the 
gang  pursued,  as  Sergeant  Condell  had  positively  identified 
his  voice  at  the  time  of  the  attack.  With  this  knowledge 
Sanderson  followed  a  certain  course  to  the  Weddin  Moun- 
tains, with  the  result  that  he  pressed  so  hard  upon  the  heels 
of  the  bushrangers  that  they  abandoned  a  pack-horse  which 
carried  a  considerable  amount  of  gold.  Sir  Frederick, 
who  was  continuing  the  search  at  another  point,  later  on  made 

1  The  mode  of  despatching  a  gold  escort  without  the  accompaniment  of 
mounted  troopers  (in  the  Lachlan  instance  the  men  rode  inside  the  coach) 
was  the  occasion  of  public  condemnation.  As  a  result  of  the  outcry  the 
Government  shortly  after  issued  instructions  for  the  proper  guarding  of  the 
mail-coach  by  mounted  troopers  in  advance,  and  in  the  rear,  of  the  vehicle. 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

a  notable  capture  of  two  men  implicated  in  the  robbery, 
together  with  a  portion  of  the  plunder,  but  while  conveying 
them  to  Forbes  a  rescue  was  effected.  The  police  officers, 
three  in  number,  were  attacked  by  a  larger  party  of  bush- 
rangers and  compelled  to  fall  back  letting  their  prisoners  go 
free.  One  of  these  men,  it  may  be  said  here,  was  the  notori- 
ous Manns  who  was  afterwards  re-arrested  and  hung.  The 
only  consolation  the  Inspector  had  was  the  knowledge  that 
he  had  safely  kept  the  recaptured  gold,  although  Gardiner 
had  made  it  known  that  he  would  never  let  it  be  taken  to 
Forbes. 

Following  upon  this  incident  many  wild  rumours  were 
circulated  throughout  the  colony.  It  was  more  than  once 
asserted  that  Gardiner  and  other  principals  had  been  shot 
down  in  an  encounter  with  the  police,  but  each  report  was  in 
turn  falsified.  What  did  actually  happen  was  an  attempt  to 
apprehend  Gardiner  that  almost  proved  successful.  In  this 
both  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger  and  Sergeant  Sanderson  were 
concerned.  Acting  "  on  information  received  "  the  two 
officers  with  Sub-Inspector  Norton  and  a  trooper  named 
Holster  watched  a  house  which  the  bushranger  was  believed 
to  be  visiting.  There  was  known  to  be  a  woman  in  the  case, 
the  wife  of  a  settler  with  whom  Gardiner  was  carrying  on 
an  intrigue.  The  information  turned  out  to  be  correct. 
From  a  position  in  the  pine  tree  scrub  outside  the  house  Sir 
Frederick  at  midnight  observed  a  man  on  a  white  horse 
approaching  the  place. 

"  The  noise  of  horse's  hoofs,"  he  says,  "  sounded  nearer 
and  nearer,  when  I  saw  Gardiner  cantering  leisurely  along. 
I  waited  until  he  came  within  five  yards  of  me,  and  levelling 
my  carbine  at  him  across  his  horse's  shoulder  (the  weapon,  I 
swear,  being  about  three  yards  from  his  body)  I  called  upon 

—  142  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

him  to  stand.  I  cannot  be  mistaken,  and  on  my  oath  I 
declare  that  the  man  was  Frank  Gardiner.  Deeming  it  not 
advisable  to  lose  a  chance  I  prepared  to  shoot  him,  but  the 
cap  of  my  piece  missed  fire.  Gardiner's  horse  then  began  to 
rear  and  plunge,  and  before  I  had  time  to  adjust  my  gun, 
he  had  bolted  into  the  bush." 

As  Gardiner  was  riding  away  on  the  frightened  animal 
Sergeant  Sanderson  and  Trooper  Holster  both  sent  flying 
shots  after  him,  but  without  effect.  And  so  once  more  the 
bushranger  gave  his  would-be  captors  the  slip  and  once  more 
had  the  laugh  of  the  police.  This  unfortunate  affair  led  to 
Sir  Frederick  and  his  aids  being  severely  criticised  by  the 
public,  who  were  chafing  at  the  continued  non-success  of  the 
authorities.  That  the  Inspector  was  somewhat  to  blame  in 
this  instance  must  be  admitted.  A  man  of  undoubted  cour- 
age, he  was  impetuous  to  a  fault,  a  weakness  that  certainly 
dimmed  his  reputation.  Too  anxious  to  make  the  arrest 
single-handed,  he  tied  the  hands  of  his  companions  by 
issuing  strict  orders  that  no  shot  was  to  be  fired  until  he 
gave  the  command.  When  at  last  he  did  so  it  was  too  late 
for  the  other  officers  to  do  anything  effective. 

However,  although  much  ridicule  was  levelled  at  the 
Mounted  Police  they  stuck  steadily  to  their  work,  and  were 
not  long  before  they  were  able  to  proclaim  an  arrest  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Sergeant  Sanderson,  who  had  been 
quietly  making  investigations  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Wheogo,  apprehended  five  men,  among  whom  were  John 
McGuire,  Benjamin  Hall  and  Daniel  Charters.  On  one  of 
these  were  found  some  notes  believed  to  be  identical  with 
those  stolen  from  the  escort.  There  was  certainly  enough 
to  justify  arrest  on  suspicion,  but  the  police  were  not  aware 
of  the  value  of  their  "  haul "  until  Charters  made  a 

— -143  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

voluntary  confession.  In  his  statement  the  latter  revealed 
the  true  history  of  the  robbery  and  named  the  men  who  had 
played  the  leading  part  therein.  Among  those  not  yet 
under  lock  and  key  were  three,  Alexander  Fordyce,  John  Bow 
and  Jack  O'Meally.  These  were  now  arrested,  while  the  satis- 
faction of  the  police  was  increased  by  the  knowledge  that 
another  prisoner,  known  as  Turner,  was  in  reality  Manns,  a 
prominent  associate  of  Gardiner. 

In  due  course  the  bushrangers  Fordyce,  McGuire,  Bow, 
O'Meally  and  Manns  were  tried  before  a  Special  Com- 
mission that  sat  at  Sydney.  There  the  informer  Charters 
repeated  his  confession  in  more  detail,  and  after  certain  of 
the  law's  delays  Fordyce,  Bow  and  Manns  were  convicted 
and  sentenced  to  death.  Charters,  as  promised,  received  a 
pardon.  The  others,  with  six  more  highwaymen  arraigned 
on  different  charges,  escaped  with  terms  of  imprisonment. 
The  death  sentence,  however,  was  only  carried  out  in  the 
case  of  Manns.  Strong  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  to 
secure  the  reprieves  of  Fordyce  and  Bow,  the  result  being 
that  their  sentences  were  commuted  to  imprisonment  for 
life. 

What  became  of  Gardiner,  Hall,  O'Meally,  Gilbert  and 
others  of  this  noted  gang,  will  be  related  in  the  following 
pages.  In  closing  this  chapter  of  their  history  it  only  re- 
mains to  add  that,  beyond  what  the  police  recovered  in  the 
first  stages  of  their  search,  no  more  of  the  stolen  treasure 
was  discovered.  In  commenting  on  this  Mr.  Charles  White, 
in  his  account  of  the  escort  robbery,  remarks  significantly  : 
"  Some  of  the  residents  of  the  district  have  always  held  to 
the  opinion  that  more  than  one  of  the  '  shares  '  so  carefully 
divided ^by  the  leader  of  the  gang  still  lie  hidden  in  the  fast- 
nesses of^the  Weddin  Mountains.  My  own  opinion  is  that 

—  144  — 


THREE  NOTORIOUS  BUSHRANGERS. 


"  THUNDERBOLT." 
(Taken  after  death.) 


NED    KELLY. 


FRANCIS    GARDINER. 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

there  are  persons  living  at  the  time  this  is  being  written — 
and  nearly  forty  summers  have  passed  away  since  the  robbery 
— who  could,  if  they  chose,  account  for  the  unrecovered  gold 
and  notes.  More  than  this  I  dare  not  say." 


145  — 


CHAPTER   IX 

BTJSHRANGING   DAYS. — II 

"  Gardiner's  Flying  Squadron  " — Inspector  Patrick  Brennan — Catching  a 
tartar — Bushranging  tactics — "  Bush  telegraphs  " — Gardiner  disap- 
pears— Detective  McGlone — Capture  of  Gardiner — Trial  and  sen- 
tence— Ben  Hall — Sticking  up  of  Canowindra — Relaxations — Mock 
bushrangers  and  a  sequel — Police  caught  napping — Trooper  Button's 
pluck — Trooper  Burns — Four  to  one — A  bushranger  shot — Medals 
awarded — Raid  on  Bathurst — Police  blunders — The  system  at  fault — 
— Government  action — Police  reforms  instituted. 

SIR  FREDERICK  POTTINGER  was  not  the  only  police 
officer  who  had  a  personal  encounter  with  Gardiner 
and  members  of  his  gang.  Not  very  long  after  the  gold 
escort  robbery  a  party  of  the  bushrangers  appeared  at 
Pudman  Creek,  where  they  "  bailed  up  "  Mr.  Dwyer,  store- 
keeper ;  and  at  Blakeney  Creek,  where  they  similarly  treated  a 
Mr.  Rudif.  The  band  are  reported  as  having  been  armed 
each  with  two  revolvers  and  a  gun.  They  represented 
themselves  as  "  Gardiner's  Flying  Squadron." 

When  the  bushrangers  had  taken  toll  and  ridden  off,  the 
discomfited  storekeepers  apprised  the  police  at  Yass,  the 
nearest  point,  whence  word  was  passed  on  to  Goulburn, 
sixty  miles  farther  along  the  Southern  Road.  At  this  latter 
town  was  the  late  Inspector  Patrick  Brennan.  On  receipt  of 
the  intelligence  he  and  a  trooper  saddled  up  and  started  to 
get  on  the  trail  of  the  thieves.  Riding  direct  to  Yass  they 
reached  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Phillips  at  nightfall  and  stabled 

—  146  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

their  horses  while  they  went  inside.  Within  less  than  half 
an  hour  Mr.  Phillips  and  his  guests  were  enjoying  the  un- 
usual experience  of  being  "  stuck  up,"  for  two  bushrangers 
had  reined  up  at  the  door  with  a  summons  to  the  inmates 
to  surrender. 

It  was  a  veritable  case  of  catching  a  tartar.  The  In- 
spector and  his  assistant  dashed  out,  revolver  in  hand,  and 
called  on  the  surprised  bandits  to  yield  in  their  turn.  In  a 
flash  one  of  the  men  fired,  hitting  Brennan  in  the  left  shoul- 
der, but  the  officer  was  quick  to  respond  and  his  assailant 
dropped  his  gun  with  an  oath  as  a  bullet  struck  his  right  arm. 
While  the  wounded  bushranger  leapt  into  the  bush  to  make  a 
bolt  for  it,  pursued  by  the  trooper,  Brennan  shot  the  horse  of 
the  other  man,  and  closed  with  him  in  a  desperate  struggle. 
After  being  badly  knocked  about  the  head  with  the  butt  of  a 
revolver  the  Inspector  gained  the  upper  hand  and  dis- 
armed his  opponent.  To  his  gratification,  the  prisoner 
proved  to  be  one  Sedwicker,  a  well-known  criminal  wanted 
on  several  counts,  and  clearly  one  of  those  who  had  robbed 
Mr.  Dwyer.  Some  of  the  stolen  property,  saddles,  guns  and 
revolvers,  was  found  in  the  possession  of  himself  and  his  mate, 
whom  the  trooper  soon  brought  back  in  triumph. 

To  return  to  Gardiner,  the  efforts  of  the  mounted  police 
to  hunt  him  down  were  unceasing,  but  the  tactics  of  the 
bushranger  leader  constantly  outwitted  them.  By  dividing 
his  forces  Gardiner  kept  the  troopers  busily  engaged  in  two 
separate  districts  at  the  same  time,  so  that  some  confusion  as 
to  his  movements  arose.  It  was  openly  stated  that  he  used 
the  newest  members  of  his  band,  the  "  neophytes,"  to  decoy 
the  police  by  making  a  demonstration  at  some  point  ;  then, 
when  the  troopers  had  been  called  out,  Gardiner  and 
his  "  men-at-arms,"  as  the  older  hands  were  styled,  would 

—  147  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

descend  on  the  diggings  or  the  township  to  make  their  haul. 
This  plan  was  worked  successfully  many  times,  at  Lambing 
Flat  and  other  places,  and  in  letters  to  the  press  Gardiner 
taunted  the  police  with  the  ease  with  which  they  fell  into 
his  trap.  That  he  was  well  served,  also,  by  "  bush  tele- 
graphs," is  shown  by  a  newspaper  of  that  date.  Says  the 
writer — 

"  About  three  or  four  months  ago  the  [police]  patrol  were 
on  the  Bland  Plains  (near  the  Abercrombie  River)  in  pursuit 
of  some  well-known  desperadoes,  who  they  knew  were  not 
many  miles  off,  and  they  called  at  a  slightly  suspected  sta- 
tion. Being  unsuccessful  they  proceeded  to  the  next  station, 
the  residence  of  a  truly  loyal  man.  He  gave  the  officer  in 
command  all  the  information  in  his  power,  but  while  doing 
so  he  suddenly  exclaimed  :  '  Haste,  or  you'll  be  too  late  :  for, 

by  Jove,  there  goes  the  "  telegram  "  from  Mr. 's  place, 

you  passed  last !  '  The  officer  looked  in  the  direction  pointed 
out,  and  there  saw  straight  across  one  of  the  highest  ranges 
at  a  stretching  gallop,  a  finely  mounted  youth.  No  time 
was  lost  by  the  patrol,  but  when  they  got  to  their  destination 
they  found  the  residents  calmly  waiting  their  arrival,  having 
been  evidently  on  the  look-out  for  some  time.  Of  course, 
everything  was  found  correct  and  square,  so  that  the  police 
had  to  return  sadder,  but  in  slightly  one  sense  (i.e.  bush 
telegraphy),  wiser  men." 

There  was  reason  to  believe  that  the  organisation  of 
this  service  was  so  thorough  that  every  township  had  its 
"  telegram."  Certain  it  is  that  throughout  a  wide  extent  of 
country  the  bushrangers  were  kept  fully  posted  as  to  the 
movements  of  the  police  by  their  many  friends.  Such  help 
was  forthcoming  sometimes  through  fear  of  the  consequences 
of  refusal,  but  often,  no  doubt,  it  was  purchased.  In  the 

—  148  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

bush  community  the  majority  of  men  had  their  price,  and 
were  not  loth  to  buy  immunity  for  themselves.  How  im- 
mensely this  added  to  the  difficulties  of  the  Mounted  Police 
will  be  readily  understood. 

For  many  months  the  depredations  of  the  gang  continued 
with  few  checks.  Then  a  rumour  was  circulated  to  the 
effect  that  Gardiner  had  disappeared  from  his  old  haunts, 
and  that  the  bushrangers  had  a  new  leader.  Police  and 
public  were  alike  incredulous  at  first,  but  for  once  rumour 
did  not  lie.  The  "  Prince  of  Tobymen,"  as  he  liked  to  sign 
himself,  had  actually  resigned  from  office  and  betaken  him- 
self to  pastures  new.  At  the  same  time  Mrs.  Brown,  the 
woman  whose  name  had  been  linked  with  his  for  a  year  or 
two,  disappeared,  and  it  was  rightly  conjectured  that  the 
two  had  fled  together. 

The  eventual  hunting  down  of  Gardiner  was  the  work 
of  a  smart  Sydney  detective  named  McGlone.  This  officer 
learned  that  the  bushranger  was  in  Queensland,  at  the  new 
diggings  at  Apis  Creek,  where  he  had  been  recognised 
by  a  man  whom  he  had  "  stuck  up  "  on  a  New  South  Wales 
goldfield.  Having  been  furnished  with  a  warrant  for  arrest 
and  all  necessary  documents,  McGlone  left  Sydney  in  January 
1864  and  sailed  for  Rockhampton.  He  was  accompanied 
by  two  policemen,  Constables  Pye  and  Wells,  to  neither  of 
whom  he  confided  the  true  reason  of  their  mission. 

On  arrival  in  Queensland  the  detective  set  to  work  cau- 
tiously, knowing  that  Gardiner  would  be  keenly  suspicious 
of  newcomers.  He  and  his  companions,  therefore,  dressed 
themselves  as  diggers  and  in  this  guise  travelled  slowly 
along  the  road  to  the  Apis  Creek  goldfield.  It  was  here  that 
Gardiner,  or  Christie,  as  he  now  preferred  to  be  known,  had 
settled.  In  partnership  with  a  man  named  Craig,  whom  he 

—  149  — 


THE   TROOPER_  POLICE 

had  picked  up  while  travelling,  and  who  was  blissfully  inno- 
cent of  the  other's  real  character,  he  had  started  in  business 
as  a  publican  and  storekeeper,  "  Mrs.  Christie  "  assisting 
by  serving  behind  the  bar.  In  his  quest  for  the  much  wanted 
bushranger  McGlone  was  favoured  by  no  little  luck.  That 
he  was  on  the  right  trail  he  knew  by  meeting  several  faces 
that  he  remembered  having  seen  in  the  Lachlan  district, 
faces  of  men  who  were  known  to  be  "  in  "  with  Gardiner. 
But  how  close  he  was  to  the  latter  himself  he  little  guessed. 

The  three  policemen  pitched  their  camp  within  a  stone's 
throw  of  the  new  public-house,  and  in  due  time  McGlone 
took  a  stroll  round  to  prospect.  To  his  astonishment 
the  first  individual  he  encountered  was  Gardiner  himself, 
seated  in  the  entrance  to  the  house.  The  detective  identi- 
fied him  at  once.  "  Native  of  Goulburn,  New  South  Wales, 
32  years  of  age,  5  feet  8|  inches  high,  a  labourer,  dark  sallow 
complexion,  black  hair,  brown  eyes,  small  raised  scar  in  left 
eyebrow,  small  scar  on  right  chin,  scar  on  knuckle  of  right 
forefinger,  short  finger-nails,  mark  on  temple  from  a  wound 
by  pistol  ball  or  whip  " :  so  ran  the  published  description 
which  he  knew  by  heart.  Whether  Gardiner  at  the  time  still 
wore  the  moustache  and  beard  that  he  affected  during  his 
raids  is  not  stated.  Our  portrait  depicts  him  as  he  was  in 
later  years,  after  serving  his  term  of  imprisonment. 
p*i  McGlone  in  his  account  of  the  capture  tells  how  he  invited 
Gardiner  into  the  house  to  have  a  drink,  and  how  convinced 
he  was  that  the  other  had  no  suspicion  that  he  was  being 
tracked.  Afterwards  the  detective  explained  the  situation 
to  his  two  assistants,  and  then  went  off  to  secure  the  help 
of  Lieutenant  Brown,  of  the  Queensland  Native  Mounted 
Police,  who  was  in  the  neighbourhood.  The  utmost  care  was 
taken  to  prevent  any  hitch  in  their  plans.  As  arranged, 

—  150  — 


Brown  and  his  black  troopers  came  sauntering  by  the  house 
at  the  moment  that  the  pseudo-diggers  were  preparing  to 
strike  camp.  Gardiner  was  skilfully  engaged  in  conversa- 
tion and  then,  at  a  signal,  he  was  seized  and  thrown  to  the 
ground.  The  native  police  meanwhile  covered  those  who 
were  spectators  of  the  scene,  to  prevent  any  attempt  at 
rescue.  There  was  no  occasion  for  force,  however.  The 
surprise  had  been  complete.  With  his  prisoner  McGlone  set 
off  for  Rockhampton,  where  his  warrant  obtained  Gardiner's 
remand  to  Sydney.  Without  any  delay — for  the  influence 
of  the  bushranger's  many  "  friends  "  was  to  be  feared — the 
detective  hurried  his  man  on  board  a  steamer  leaving  for 
New  South  Wales,  and  safely  got  clear. 

At  his  first  trial  in  Sydney,  the  charge  being  "  shooting 
and  wounding  Sergeant  Middleton  with  intent  to  murder 
him,"  Gardiner  was  acquitted.  He  was  remanded  to  gaol, 
however,  as  another  indictment  was  to  be  preferred  against 
him.  In  the  court-house  satisfaction  at  the  verdict  was 
openly  expressed  by  the  spectators,  but  the  press  of  the 
colony  adopted  a  very  different  tone.  On  all  hands  the 
newspapers  condemned  the  false  spirit  of  hero-worship  that 
prevailed,  principally  among  the  lower  classes,  and  called 
for  Gardiner's  conviction  and  punishment.  This  followed  in 
due  course  two  months  later,  when  he  appeared  before  the 
Chief  Justice,  Sir  Alfred  Stephen,  to  answer  the  charge  of 
robbing  Messrs.  Horsington  and  Hewitt  "  under  arms," 
and  that  of  wounding  Trooper  Hosie  "  with  intent  to  do 
grievous  bodily  harm."  On  a  verdict  of  "  guilty  "  being 
returned,  Gardiner  was  sentenced  to  three  terms  of  penal 
servitude  which  amounted  in  all  to  thirty- two  years. 

Although  the  prison  gates  had  now  shut  upon  the  notori- 
ous bushranger,  seemingly  for  life,  the  good  fortune  that 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

hacTmarked  his  career  ^was'still  to  follow  him.  In  July  1874, 
after  only  ten  years'  incarceration,  he  was  released  through 
a  strenuous  agitation  on  the  part  of  his  sympathisers.  In 
setting  him  free,  however,  the  Government  made  it  con- 
ditional that  he  should  leave  the  country,  and  in  accordance 
with  this  provision  Gardiner  was  immediately  shipped  to 
San  Francisco.  Here  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days, 
the  proprietor  of  a  flourishing  "  saloon  "  and,  so  far  as  is 
known,  an  honest  and  law-abiding  citizen. 

Of  the  other  members  of  the  Gardiner  gang  those  who 
most  claim  attention  are  Ben  Hall,  John  Gilbert,  Jack 
O'Meally  and  John  Dunn .  John  Vane,  who  attained  no  little 
notoriety,  was  a  later  addition  to  the  band.  In  Hall  the 
bushrangers  found  a  capable  successor  to  their  late  chief. 
At  the  outset  of  his  career  a  well-to-do  and  popular  squatter, 
this  worthy  came  under  the  suspicion  of  the  police  as  an 
accomplice  of  Gardiner.  Hall  himself  always  stoutly  main- 
tained (and  with  some  show  of  reason)  that  he  was  innocent 
of  any  such  charge.  When  the  gold  escort  robbery  occurred 
he  was  arrested  by  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger,  who  believed  him 
to  be  implicated  in  the  affair,  but  the  charge  fell  through. 
Shortly  after  he  was  thrown  into  the  company  of  a  bush- 
ranger named  Daley,  whom  the  police  hotly  pursued,  and 
in  desperation  Hall  openly  took  to  the  road.  N 

One  of  the  earliest  exploits  of  the  new  leader  was  the 
"  sticking  up  "  of  Canowindra.  In  company  with  Gilbert  and 
O'Meally,  Hall  rode  into  the  township  soon  after  midnight 
and  roused  the  proprietor  of  Robinson's  Hotel.  Every- 
one in  the  place  having  been  bailed  up,  the  household  was 
collected  in  one  room,  where  they  were  invited  to  partake 
of  refreshment.  This  little  company  was  increased  after 
daylight  by  several  drovers  who  were  brought  in  by  Gilbert. 

—  152  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

Then  three  gentlemen  arrived  at  the  hotel  in  a  buggy,  these 
being  similarly  made  prisoners.  But,  though  they  had  so 
far  found  little  in  the  shape  of  plunder,  the  bushrangers 
treated  their  captives  with  all  consideration.  Dinner  was 
served  by  their  orders,  and,  what  was  more  surprising,  it 
was  paid  for,  as  were  the  spirits  and  cigars  that  were  provided. 

In  the  meantime,  other  hotels  and  stores  were  visited 
and  the  leading  citizens  conducted  to  the  temporary  prison 
at  Robinson's  Hotel.  To  add  insult  to  injury,  the  one  police- 
man in  the  township  was  next  hauled  up  and  forced  to  act  as 
sentry,  the  three  bushrangers  hugely  enjoying  the  spectacle 
of  the  representative  of  the  law  marching  solemnly  to  and 
fro  on  the  verandah  with  a  musket  in  his  hands.  Two  days 
passed  thus,  the  time  being  mostly  filled  with  dancing  and 
music.  At  night  only  the  women  and  children  were,  allowed 
to  go  to  bed.  All  the  male  members  of  the  party  slept  in  their 
seats.  On  the  third  morning  permission  was  given  to  the 
prisoners  to  go  on  their  way.  Hall,  Gilbert  and  O'Meally 
then  rode  off,  poorer  in  pocket  than  when  they  had  arrived, 
but  expressing  themselves  very  well  content  with  their 
"  spree."  They  had  demonstrated  the  ease  with  which  a 
whole  township  could  be  bailed  up. 

The  liking  for  a  little  relaxation  in  the  way  of  music  was 
a  not  uncommon  characteristic  of  the  bushrangers  of  the 
sixties.  Some  of  the  gang  were  themselves  no  mean  per- 
formers on  the  piano,  and  could  sing  a  good  song.  One  of 
Gardiner's  followers,  having  stuck  up  a  station,  compelled 
the  daughter  of  the  house  to  play  his  accompaniment,  while 
with  unconscious  humour  he  regaled  his  host  with  a  render- 
ing of  "  Ever  of  thee  !  "  Captain  Melville,  the  Victorian 
celebrity,  was  also  noted  among  the  fraternity  for  his  musical 
accomplishments . 

—  153  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

A  story  which  bears  on  this  subject  and  relates  to  this 
period  has  an  amusing  as  well  as  a  tragic  side  to  it.  A 
certain  wealthy  squatter  once  gave  a  large  dance  at  his 
station.  While  the  festivities  were  at  their  height  three 
young  fellows  of  the  party  slipped  away  unobserved,  to 
present  themselves  soon  after  in  the  doorway  of  the  ball- 
room with  blackened  faces  and  revolvers.  At  the  sight  of 
the  roughly  dressed,  ominous  figures  a  silence  fell  on  the 
company,  the  ladies  shrinking  timidly  to  the  wall.  "  Hands 
up  !  "  came  the  stern  order  from  the  leader  of  the  trio,  but, 
not  wishing  to  carry  the  joke  too  far,  he  and  his  companions 
laughingly  revealed  their  identity. 

Every  one  joined  in  the  merriment  and  the  dance  pro- 
ceeded. It  had  been  a  good  joke,  even  if  a  little  in  bad  taste. 
About  an  hour  later  there  came  another  interruption  of  a 
like  kind.  When  two  bearded  and  masked  men  appeared 
with  levelled  revolvers  and  a  command  to  "  Hands  up  !  " 
as  before,  no  one  realised  that  anything  serious  was  amiss. 
"  It's  those  boys  again,"  said  one  voice.  A  gentleman  who 
was  near  the  door  tried  to  pull  off  one  of  the  masks,  but  he 
was  met  by  a  blow  and  a  volley  of  curses  that  left  little  doubt 
as  to  the  real  nature  of  the  intruders. 

"  Turn  out  your  pockets,  and  no  blank  fooling  !  "  said 
one  of  the  bushrangers.  And  as  the  scared  dancers  stood  in 
rows  along  the  walls  he  and  his  mate  made  a  goodly  haul  of 
cash  and  jewellery.  There  was  no  nonsense  this  time  ;  the 
robbers  were  the  genuine  article.  After  they  had  collected 
all  the  portable  property  the  two  ruffians  ordered  refresh- 
ments to  be  brought  them,  while  some  of  the  ladies  played 
and  sang.  Then,  with  polite  thanks  for  their  entertainment, 
they  withdrew  and  rode  off  into  the  darkness. 

To  hold  the  police  up  to  contempt  whenever  possible  was 
—  154  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

another  delight  of  the  bushrangers.  In  one  instance  that  is 
recorded  they  caught  a  sergeant  and  two  mounted  troopers 
napping.  One  of  the  latter  was  pounced  upon  in  the  bush, 
where  he  was  chasing  a  runaway  horse,  and  was  promptly 
tied  to  a  tree.  The  sergeant  and  other  trooper  were  surprised 
in  a  hut,  which  was  affording  them  a  temporary  rest,  and 
made  prisoners  without  difficulty.  The  policemen  then 
had  the  mortification  to  see  the  rascals  coolly  appropriate 
their  carbines,  revolvers  and  even  handcuffs,  being  left  help- 
less and  without  any  alternative  but  to  return  to  their 
quarters.  It  was  little  wonder  that  when  such  occurrences 
were  made  known  (and  the  bushrangers  took  good  care  that 
this  was  done)  the  inefficacy  of  the  police  was  the  subject 
of  general  comment.  On  the  face  of  it  the  gentlemen  of  the 
road  were  having  the  best  of  the  game.  And  yet  this  much 
must  be  said  for  the  troopers.  By  the  shortsighted  policy 
of  the  authorities  they  were  poorly  horsed  and  poorly  armed. 
However  courageous  they  might  be — and  there  were  cer- 
tainly few  cowards  among  them — they  had  small  chance  of 
success  against  men  whose  equipment  was  superior  to  theirs 
at  all  points. 

That  a  mounted  policeman  could  show  pluck  in  the  face 
of  fire,  despite  repeated  taunts  to  the  contrary,  was  evidenced 
on  many  occasions.  Take  the  case  of  Trooj  er  Sutton  of 
the  Bathurst  detachment.  A  raid  had  been  made  upon 
some  stables  near  the  town,  and  one  or  two  valuable  horses 
stolen.  As  pursuit  had  proved  unavailing,  a  substantial 
reward  was  offered  for  information  leading  to  the  apprehen- 
sion of  the  offenders,  while  steps  were  taken  to  guard  against 
the  police  plans  becoming  public.  Bush  telegraphs  were  to 
be  caught  at  all  costs  and  made  examples  of.  To  this  end 
Superintendent  Morrissett  of  Bathurst,  and  a  small  party, 

—  155  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

watched  the  country  closely  for  some  days.  In  the  end  they 
were  successful  in  arresting  three  men  who  were  strongly 
suspected  of  being  in  league  with  the  bushrangers. 

With  his  prisoners  the  Superintendent  proceeded  to 
Bathurst  by  coach,  having  two  other  police  officers  inside 
with  him.  Trooper  Sutton  rode  outside  as  escort.  A  few 
miles  along  the  road  from  Carcoar  a  not  unexpected  rescue 
was  attempted.  Three  bushrangers,  afterwards  identified 
as  Gilbert,  O'Meally  and  Vane,  stopped  the  coach  and 
demanded  the  release  of  the  prisoners.  The  police  promptly 
jumped  out  to  show  fight,  being  met  with  a  discharge  from 
the  others'  guns.  They  were  on  the  point  of  firing  back 
when  Trooper  Sutton,  who  had  dropped  a  little  way  behind 
on  the  road,  suddenly  came  up  at  a  gallop  and  charged 
straight  at  the  gang.  His  revolver  rang  out  twice  and  he  was 
raising  it  for  a  third  shot  when  a  bullet  struck  his  arm  and 
placed  him  hors  de  combat.  The  trooper  thereupon  rode 
back  towards  the  coach  to  rejoin  his  comrades,  and  was 
probably  never  nearer  certain  death  than  at  that  moment. 
One  of  the  shots  aimed  at  him  as  he  turned  sent  his  hat 
flying  from  his  head. 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  the  fire  of  the  police  became 
too  hot  for  the  bushrangers  and  they  made  off  with  their 
object  unattained.  The  coach  then  continued  on  its  way, 
Sutton  being  dropped  at  a  wayside  inn,  as  loss  of  blood  had 
made  him  too  weak  to  stand  the  journey.  The  plucky 
trooper  was  found  to  have  been  badly  wounded,  but  under 
medical  treatment  he  recovered  to  spend  many  useful  years 
in  the  force. 

The  brave  stand  made  by  Trooper  Burns  while  on  duty 
with  the  Araluen  gold  escort  is  also  worth  recording.  This 
was  in  1865,  towards  the  end  of  Ben  Hall's  career.  As  the 

-156- 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

light  spring  cart  drove  along  the  road  from  the  diggings  to 
Major's  Creek  Mount  and  was  ascending  the  incline  it  was 
fired  upon  by  four  bushrangers  who  had  taken  cover  among 
the  trees.  A  trooper  named  Kelly  was  wounded  fatally  at 
the  first  discharge  and  dropped  from  his  horse.  Burns  was 
driving  at  the  time.  Jumping  down  he  coolly  placed  a  stone 
behind  the  wheel  of  the  vehicle,  and  then  opened  fire  upon 
the  attacking  party.  His  companion  on  the  box  seat,  a 
Mr.  Blatchford,  Justice  of  the  Peace,  ran  down  the  hill  to  a 
hotel  they  had  just  passed  to  summon  help,  while  two  other 
troopers  in  the  escort  made  a  detour  to  attack  the  bush- 
rangers in  the  rear. 

For  the  time  Burns  was  left  alone  to  bear  the  brunt  of 
the  fighting.  Opposed  to  him  were  Hall,  Gilbert  and  two 
more  of  the  gang,  all  well  armed.  Kneeling  behind  the 
cart  the  trooper  held  them  at  bay  successfully,  luckily  escap- 
ing being  hit  by  their  bullets,  until  suddenly  the  other 
troopers  brought  their  rifles  to  bear  on  the  party.  The  fire 
was  now  becoming  too  hot  for  the  bushrangers,  and  after  a 
few  more  shots  they  gave  up  the  attempt  and  disappeared. 
For  this  smart  piece  of  work  Trooper  Burns  received  a 
substantial  reward. 

Another  instance  in  which  the  bushrangers  came  badly 
off  occurred  just  after  the  affair  at  Reedy  Creek,  near  Mudgee, 
when  the  Cassilis  mail  was  stuck  up.  The  next  day,  while  a 
Mr.  Robert  Lowe  was  driving  along  the  Mudgee  road  with 
his  servant,  Hugh  McKenzie,  they  were  ordered  to  stand. 
Mr.  Lowe  had  a  loaded  gun  in  his  buggy  and  stooping  down 
quickly  he  seized  it  and  fired  at  the  two  men  who  barred  the 
road.  His  shot  told,  for  as  the  highwaymen  turned  to  take 
cover  one  of  them  fell  to  the  ground.  The  other  then  put 
spurs  to  his  horse  and  galloped  off.  Subsequently  this  man 

—  157  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

was  pursued  by  Sergeant  Cleary  of  the  Mounted  Police  and 
two  black  trackers,  being  caught  at  Coonamble,  over  two 
hundred  miles  away.  The  man  who  was  shot  died  almost 
immediately.  He  proved  to  be  a  desperate  character  named 
Heather,  who  had  committed  a  highway  robbery  only  half 
an  hour  previously.  At  the  inquest  the  jury  returned  a 
verdict  of  justifiable  homicide,  and  Mr.  Lowe  afterwards  had 
the  gratification  of  receiving  a  gold  medal  from  the  Govern- 
ment for  his  act. 

The  presentation  of  medals  for  resisting  and  capturing 
bushrangers,  it  may  be  noted  here,  was  instituted  in  1875. 
Gold  medals  were  awarded  to  private  individuals  who  had 
distinguished  themselves,  and  silver  ones  to  members  of  the 
constabulary.  Each  medal  bore  on  one  side  the  head  of  the 
Queen,  surrounded  by  the  words  "  The  Colony  of  New  South 
Wales  "  ;  on  the  reverse  was  the  Australian  coat  of  arms, 
surmounting  the  recipient's  name  which  was  encircled  by  a 
floral  wreath.  Round  this  design  was  inscribed  "  Granted 
for  gallant  and  faithful  services."  Six  such  gold  medals 
were  given  to  civilians,  a  seventh  being  presented  to  the 
widow  of  Captain  McLerie,  who  was  Inspector-General  of 
Police  between  1856  and  1874,  in  recognition  of  her  husband's 
great  services.  The  Mounted  Police  who  were  decorated 
were  Sergeant  John  Middleton,  who  arrested  Gardiner  at 
Fogg's  hut,  as  has  been  related,  and  Sergeant  A.  B.  Walker, 
whose  encounter  with  Captain  Thunderbolt  has  yet  to  be 
told.  A  third  silver  medal  was  bestowed  upon  an  innkeeper 
of  Pine  Ridge,  named  Beauvais,  who  had  a  thrilling  fight 
with  the  bushranger  Rutherford  and  killed  his  assailant. 

Of  the  numerous  daring  exploits  which  signalised  Ben 
Hall's  leadership  of  the  "  Gardiner  gang  "  space  will  only 
permit  brief  enumeration.  Scarcely  a  day  went  by  without 

—  158  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

some  outrage  being  reported.  Next  to  the  ' '  sticking  up  "  of 
Canowindra,  perhaps  the  most  notable  feat  was  the  raid 
upon  Bathurst.  This  was  the  outcome  of  a  remark  made 
by  a  resident  of  that  town  whom  Hall  had  robbed  in  open 
daylight  in  the  bush.  "  You  daren't  come  to  Bathurst !  " 
said  that  gentleman.  "  You'll  see,"  had  been  Hall's  reply. 

No  significance  was  apparently  attached  to  this  brief 
conversation,  for  no  one  in  Bathurst  dreamed  that  any  bush- 
ranger would  be  bold  enough  to  show  his  face  in  the  town. 
But  Hall  fully  intended  to  give  the  public  another  surprise. 
Several  weeks  later  a  raid  was  made  on  Caloola,  a  township 
on  the  old  Lachlan  road  to  the  south  of  Bathurst,  and,  as 
was  anticipated,  a  strong  body  of  troopers  under  Superin- 
tendent Morrissett  of  Bathurst  set  out  in  pursuit  of  the  gang. 
That  it  was  merely  a  ruse  to  lure  them  out  into  the  hills  was 
not  suspected  by  the  police,  yet  such  was  the  case.  A  few 
hours  after  they  had  left  down  came  the  bushrangers  to  carry 
out  Hall's  half-veiled  threat. 

The  raiders  were  five  in  number  :  Hall,  Vane,  Gilbert, 
O'Meally  and  Burke.  Riding  quietly  into  the  town  they 
visited  one  or  two  shops  without  exciting  any  comment, 
Vane  being  detached  to  watch  the  main  road.  At  a  jeweller's 
store,  however,  where  they  proceeded  to  take  toll  an  alarm 
was  given  and  the  quartette  mounted  their  horses  and 
galloped  off.  There  was  now  considerable  commotion  in 
that  quarter  of  the  town,  and  every  trooper  left  in  the 
barracks  was  hastily  called  into  action.  Never  supposing 
for  a  moment  that  the  gang  would  attempt  another  robbery 
in  the  town  limits,  the  police  dashed  out  along  the  roads 
leading  to  Caloola  or  Carcoar,  and  thus  again  favoured  the 
bushrangers'  movements.  What  Hall  had  done  was  to 
proceed  to  a  hotel  kept  by  one  Alderman  De  Clouet,  at  the 

—  159  ~ 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

far  end  of  the  town,  and  "  stick  up  "  the  household.  At  this 
place  some  small  booty  was  secured,  but  the  raiders  failed 
in  their  chief  object,  which  was  to  secure  a  famous  racehorse 
owned  by  the  alderman.  This  animal  had  fortunately  been 
removed  from  his  former  quarters.  Eventually  the  four 
took  the  southern  road  and  escaped  to  their  retreat  without 
meeting  any  of  the  parties  who  were  then  searching  the 
district. 

Bathurst  had  a  breathing  space  of  two  days.  Then,  with 
an  audacity  that  amounted  to  bravado  Hall  and  some  of 
his  followers  appeared  again  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town, 
plundering  stores  and  creating  a  new  reign  of  terror.  This 
time  the  police  parties  from  Bathurst  were  headed  by  Super- 
intendent Morrissett  and  the  Inspector-General,  Captain 
McLerie,  who  had  come  specially  from  Sydney  to  investigate 
matters  in  person.  Owing  to  the  methods  of  red  tape  that 
existed,  by  which  individual  action  on  the  part  of  inferior 
officers  was  stifled,  and  owing  to  crass  blundering  by  the 
leaders  of  the  police,  the  bushrangers  were  allowed  to  get 
away  when  a  sharp  pursuit  would  undoubtedly  have  brought 
them  to  book.  So  marked  was  the  lack  of  generalship  that 
strong  representations  were  made  to  the  central  authorities, 
and  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Mr.  Charles  Cowper,  was  moved 
to  take  action. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  1862  the  New  South  Wales 
legislature  had  passed  a  new  Police  Act,  under  which  the 
whole  of  the  force  hi  the  colony  was  brought  under  one 
central  control,  with  headquarters  at  Sydney.  The  first 
Inspector-General,  the  supreme  chief,  was  Captain  McLerie. 
In  theory  this  scheme  was  admirable,  but  in  practice  it  was 
not  justifying  itself.  The  constant  dependence  on  orders, 
the  fear  of  reprimand  through  acting  on  one's  own  initiative, 

—  160  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

led  to  too  much  inaction,  and  what  should  have  been  a 
mobile  force  was  robbed  of  its  most  important  characteristic 
at  the  beginning.  The  fact  could  not  be  concealed  that 
the  Mounted  Police  of  the  day  were  in  general  unfit  for 
the  special  duties  they  were  called  upon  to  perform.  The 
force  was  disorganised  to  a  great  extent,  and  jealousies 
between  officers  were  allowed  to  nullify  whatever  good  there 
lay  in  the  system.  It  was  with  a  view  to  remedying  these 
evils  that  the  Inspector-General  had  himself  gone  into 
the  country  districts  and  undertaken  actual  police  duty. 
But  in  the  condition  of  things  reform  could  not  be  instituted 
immediately.  And  while  blunder  after  blunder  occurred, 
and  the  authorities  were  forced  to  admit  their  failure  to 
check  the  depredations  of  the  bushrangers,  public  indigna- 
tion boiled  over. 

"  Now,"  says  Mr.  White,  "  the  full  force  of  the  condem- 
natory blast  was  felt  in  Parliament,  and  the  Government 
were  at  their  wits'  end  to  stand  against  it.  They  could  not 
defend  a  force  as  inefficient  as  that  under  McLerie's  command 
had  proved  itself  to  be,  but  Mr.  Cowper  would  not  admit 
that  it  was  the  system  that  was  in  fault.  He  was  loyal  to 
his  offspring,  but  terribly  indignant  at  the  manner  in  which 
those  in  whose  charge  he  had  placed  it  were  acting.  A 
bitter  correspondence  ensued  between  Mr.  Cowper  and  the 
Inspector-General,  during  which  the  Premier  threatened 
at  one  time  to  '  set  the  regular  police  aside  and  organise 
another  band  under  an  entirely  different  arrangement,'  and  in 
a  later  letter  added  :  '  The  Colonial  Secretary  is,  however, 
unwilling  suddenly  to  withdraw  the  Inspector-  General,  but 
intimates  his  intention  of  doing  so  if,  within  one  month, 
Gilbert  and  party  are  not  apprehended.  It  will  then  become 
a  question  for  immediate  determination  what  modification 

—  161  —  M 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  the  police  system  shall  be  made  to  remedy  the  defects  so 
loudly  complained  of.' ' 

These  were  strong  words  and  they  show  how  the  gravity 
of  the  situation  was  realised  at  headquarters.  Following 
upon  these  strictures  the  Government  issued  notices  of 
rewards  of  £500  each  for  the  apprehension  of  the  five  leading 
bushrangers,  Hall,  Gilbert,  Vane,  O'Meally  and  Burke. 
The  last-named  was  a  new  recruit  who  had  made  himself 
conspicuous  in  several  affairs.  To  fit  the  police  more  suit- 
ably for  their  work  in  the  bush  it  was  ordered  that  uniforms 
were  to  be  discarded  and  the  rough  bushman's  outfit  adopted 
instead.  The  change  from  the  dragoon  equipment  was  a 
welcome  one.  Hitherto  the  troopers  had  been  conspicuous 
objects  wherever  they  went,  making  secrecy  practically 
impossible.  Their  heavy  tight-fitting  uniforms,  too,  while 
smart  in  appearance,  had  not  conduced  to  comfort.  What 
was  no  less  important,  improved  patterns  of  rifles  and 
revolvers  were  now  issued,  and  a  better  class  of  horse  pro- 
vided. A  final  special  instruction  in  the  Government's 
minute  was  that  the  Mounted  Police  in  future,  in  the  area 
of  operations,  were  to  be  devoted  exclusively  to  hunting 
down  bushrangers.  They  were  to  freely  use  the  services  of 
black  trackers  and  be  prepared  for  continuous  work  in  the 
bush. 

How  these  measures  acted  in  quickening  the  energies  of 
the  police  will  be  seen  as  the  story  of  the  bushrangers  is 
followed.  Rome  was  not  built  in  a  day,  nor  were  these 
pests  of  society  to  be  destroyed  by  a  single  sweep  of  the  arm 
of  the  law.  More  stringent  means  had  to  be  resorted  to  ere 
"  robbery  under  arms  "  was  stamped  out  hi  the  colony  and 
the  authority  of  the  police  became  paramount. 

—  162  — 


CHAPTER   X 

BUSHRANGING   DAYS. — HI 

Death  of  Lowry — The  Dunn's  Plains  affair — Burke  shot — Surrender  of 
Vane — O'Meally  at  Goimbla  station — Sergeant  Parry's  death — The 
Felons'  Apprehension  Act — Shooting  of  Ben  Hall — Gilbert  and  Dunn 
— Dan  Morgan  on  the  Southern  Road — Sergeant  McGinnerty — 
Another  police  tragedy — Morgan  at  Peechalba  station— A  Chinese 
bushranger — The  brothers  Clarke — Murder  of  the  special  constables 
— Hunted  down  at  last — Sir  Watkin  Wynne,  black  tracker — Captain 
Thunderbolt — Trooper  Walker — A  hand  to  hand  fight — Captain 
Melville  in  ;, Victoria — The  "  Moonlight  "  gang — The  Wantabadgery 
"  sticking  up." 

THE  Gardiner  gang  were  not  to  have  an  uninterrupted 
career  of  success,  although  to  the  popular  eye  they 
seemed  to  be  flaunting  the  police  with  impunity.  In  the 
spring  of  1863  Frederick  Lowry,  one  of  its  members,  was 
cornered  by  Sergeant  Stephenson  and  Trooper  Herbst  at 
Cook's  Vale  Creek,  and  after  an  exciting  encounter  shot 
down.  The  next  to  suffer  was  Burke,  the  scene  of  his 
dramatic  ending  being  Dunn's  Plains,  near  Rockley. 

It  had  been  arranged  by  Hall  and  Gilbert  to  make  an 
attack  upon  Assistant  Gold  Commissioner  Keightley,  whose 
house  was  in  that  locality.  One  day  in  October,  a  week 
after  the  "  sticking  up  "  of  Canowindra,  the  bushrangers  rode 
out  to  the  Plains.  They  were  five  in  number,  O'Meally, 
Vane  and  Burke  accompanying  the  two  leaders.  In  this 
instance  they  failed  to  take  their  victim  by  surprise.  Mr. 

-  163- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Keightley  saw  them  coming,  barred  his  door  and  windows, 
and  returned  the  others'  fire  with  such  good  effect  that  he 
accounted  for  one  of  the  attacking  party.  Burke  was  seen 
to  throw  up  his  hands,  crying  out  that  he  was  "  done  for," 
and  though  he  was  not  killed  outright  his  wound  soon 
proved  to  be  mortal. 

This  fight  at  Dunn's  Plains  fortunately  was  attended  by 
no  other  tragedy.  When  the  ammunition  of  the  besieged 
became  exhausted  Mr.  Keightley  surrendered.  The  bush- 
rangers were  incensed  at  the  death  of  Burke,  and  at  first 
were  for  shooting  the  Gold  Commissioner  in  revenge,  but  in 
the  end  better  persuasions  prevailed.  After  a  conference 
it  was  decided  that  his  life  should  be  spared  on  payment 
of  a  sum  of  £500.  This  system  of  ransoming  was  a  new 
departure  for  the  bushrangers.  To  obtain  the  money — the 
exact  amount,  by  the  way,  which  Mr.  Keightley  would 
receive  from  the  Government  as  a  reward  for  shooting  Burke 
— his  friend  Dr.  Peechey,  an  inmate  of  the  house,  rode  to 
Bathurst.  He  returned  within  the  appointed  time,  and 
their  prisoner  having  been  released,  the  outlaws  left  the 
scene. 

Immediately  after  this  serious  outrage  the  reward  for 
the  apprehension  of  Hall,  Gilbert,  O'Meally  and  Vane  was 
raised  in  each  case  from  £500  to  £1,000.  The'last-named 
member  of  the  gang  was  shortly  after  brought  to  justice 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  priest,  who  induced  him  to 
surrender  to  the  police  before  retribution  overtook  him. 
On  being  tried  Vane  was  convicted  of  highway  robbery  under 
arms  and  was  sentenced  to  a  long  term  of  penal  servitude. 
That  he  chose  a  wise  course  was  made  evident  by  the  fate 
of  his  companions,  each  of  whom  died  a  violent  death.  Had 
Vane  continued  with  the  gang  there  is  little  doubt  but  that 

—  164  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

he  would  have  been  shot  by  the  police  or  would  have  ended 
his  days  on  the  scaffold. 

O'Meally's  death  occurred  at  Goimbla  Station,  the  owner 
of  which,  Mr.  David  Campbell,  had  incurred  the  animosity  of 
the  gang.  This  was  in  November  of  the  same  year.  Making 
a  descent  upon  the  station  to  "  pay  out  "  Mr.  Campbell  for 
his  former  vigilance  in  joining  search-parties  to  hunt  them 
down,  the  bushrangers  set  fire  to  the  barn  and  stables.  They 
then  prepared  to  attack  the  house,  and  Mrs.  Campbell,  while 
pluckily  crossing  a  verandah  to  obtain  a  gun,  had  a  narrow 
escape  from  being  killed.  It  was  the  lady  who  from  her 
point  of  vantage  noted  where  the  men  were  under  cover 
in  the  stackyard  and  informed  her  husband.  Mr.  Campbell 
thereupon  stalked  them  successfully  and  had  the  good 
fortune  to  shoot  O'Meally,  whose  face  he  recognised  in  the 
glare  of  the  flames.  As  the  mounted  police  from  Forbes, 
attracted  by  the  light  of  the  burning  buildings,  were  now 
galloping  up,  the  other  bushrangers,  Hall  and  Gilbert,  made 
off  without  delay.  It  may  be  added  that  both  Mr.  Campbell 
and  Mr.  Keightley  received  gold  medals  from  the  Govern- 
ment for  ridding  the  colony  of  two  such  ruffians. 

After  the  loss  of  their  allies  Ben  Hall  and  Gilbert  con- 
tinued their  depredations  by  themselves  with  varying  success 
until  fresh  recruits  were  attracted  to  them.  Of  these  new 
bushrangers  only  one,  Johnny  Dunn,  achieved  any  notoriety. 
But  little  time,  indeed,  remained  for  the  gang  to  add  to  their 
unsavoury  reputation.  The  mounted  police  were  now 
pressing  them  close,  drawing  the  net  round  the  two  principals. 

After  one  or  two  raids  in  which  they  secured  some  new 
mounts,  well-known  racehorses  being  lifted  in  each  instance, 
there  came  a  crime  which  set  the  seal  on  their  fate.  This  was 
the  shooting  of  Sergeant  Parry.  In  November  1864,  Hall, 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Gilbert  and  Dunn  were  out  on  the  Southern  Road  at  Black 
Springs,  near  Jugiong,  where  during  one  day  they  bailed  up 
no  fewer  than  fifty  people  of  all  classes.  This  assemblage  was 
kept  under  close  surveillance  in  the  bush  while  the  trio  waited 
to  hold  up  the  mail  from  Albury,  which  was  hourly  expected. 
With  the  mail  when  it  arrived  came  two  mounted  troopers, 
Sub-Inspector  O'Neil  and  Sergeant  Parry.  Inside  the 
coach  were  Mr.  Ross,  District  Police  Magistrate,  and  a 
constable. 

The  two  mounted  men  received  the  first  fire,  and  the 
sergeant  was  shot  dead  by  Gilbert.  Sub-Inspector  O'Neil, 
using  the  coach  as  cover,  kept  up  a  spirited  defence  until  his 
ammunition  was  expended,  as  also  did  Mr.  Ross,  but  both 
were  compelled  to  yield.  They  then  joined  the  "camp," 
where  the  other  prisoners  were  huddled  together.  Of  the 
constable  the  less  said  the  better.  He  had  been  ordered 
by  Mr.  Ross  to  get  among  the  trees  and  open  fire  upon  the 
bushrangers  from  safe  cover.  On  seeing  Parry  fall  and  the 
others  surrender  he  took  to  his  heels.  Happily  for  the 
credit  of  the  Australian  Mounted  Police  such  cases  of  showing 
the  white  feather  are  few  and  far  between.  For  every  man 
who  bolted  in  the  face  of  danger  they  can  show  a  hundred 
who  stood  their  ground  until  killed  or  overcome. 

Weeks  went  by,  with  an  almost  daily  record  of  highway 
robberies,  now  hi  the  Goulburn  district  and  now  at  Cano- 
windra  or  some  outlying  spot.  Yet  another  policeman, 
Constable  Nelson  of  Collector,  was  shot  down  hi  cold  blood, 
the  aggressor  this  time  being  Dunn.  Thereafter  the  gang 
were  heard  of  in  their  old  haunts  in  the  Lachlan,  where 
many  stations  were  raided  to  provide  fresh  horses.  It  was 
at  this  juncture,  early  in  1865,  that  the  Government  was 
driven  to  pass  an  extreme  measure  by  which  the  bushrangers 

—  166  — 


BUSHRANGING    DAYS 

were  proclaimed  outlaws.  This  was  the  "  Felons'  Appre- 
hension Act."  Hall,  Gilbert  and  Dunn  were  now  to  be 
hunted  like  dogs  ;  it  was  in  the  power  of  any  one  to  shoot 
them  on  sight.  They  were  to  be  human  vermin  in  the  eyes 
of  men. 

"  If,  after  Proclamation  by  the  Governor  with  the  advice 
of  the  Executive  Council  of  the  fact  of  such  adjudication 
shall  have  been  published  in  the  Gazette,  and  in  one  or  more 
Sydney  and  one  or  more  country  newspapers,  such  outlaw 
shall  afterwards  be  found  at  large  armed,  or  there  being 
reasonable  grounds  to  believe  that  he  is  armed,  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  any  of  her  Majesty's  subjects,  whether  a  constable 
or  not,  and  without  being  accountable  for  using  of  any  deadly 
weapon  in  aid  of  such  apprehension,  whether  its  use  be  pre- 
ceded by  a  demand  of  surrender  or  not,  to  apprehend  or 
take  such  outlaw  alive  or  dead."  In  this  clause  of  the 
second  section  was  provided  the  necessary  authority.  The 
Act  was  to  remain  in  force  for  a  year  from  the  date  of  its 
passing. 

The  Proclamation  of  outlawry  and  summons  to  surrender 
was  issued  shortly  after.  But  knowing  full  well  that  their 
crimes  of  murder  and  robbery  could  only  be  expiated  on  the 
gallows,  the  bushrangers  still  defied  the  law.  That  they 
realised  the  game  was  nearly  up  is  probable.  The  penalties 
against  "  bush  telegraphs  "  and  harbourers  had  been  made  so 
stringent  as  to  alienate  many  of  their  sympathisers.  Their 
hiding-places  were  no  longer  secure,  and  the  large  bodies  of 
mounted  police  drafted  into  the  western  district  kept  them 
in  a  state  of  continual  unrest. 

The  first  of  the  gang  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  police 
was  Ben  Hall.  Sub-Inspector  James  Davidson,  of  the 
Lachlan  detachment,  got  on  the  track  of  the  bushrangers  on 

—  167  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  last  day  of  April.  Five  days  later  the  party  found  two 
horses  hobbled  in  the  scrub  about  twelve  miles  from  Forbes. 
In  the  evening  a  man  was  seen  to  take  the  animals  some  little 
way  off,  and  a  black  tracker  was  sent  to  follow  his  movements. 
The  native  located  his  whereabouts,  returning  to  inform  the 
police.  Through  the  night  the  man's  camp  was  watched, 
and  at  daybreak,  when  he  appeared  in  the  open,  he  was  called 
upon  to  stand.  It  was  Ben  Hall.  The  hunted  man  turned 
to  run  for  his  life,  but  ere  he  could  gain  cover  the  police  had 
fired,  several  bullets  taking  effect.  He  dropped  to  the 
ground  and  died  within  a  few  moments. 

After  the  death  of  their  leader  Gilbert  and  Dunn  seem  to 
have  thought  more  of  their  safety  than  of  committing 
robberies.  But  practically  every  former  refuge  was  now 
closed  to  them.  In  their  extremity  the  two  fled  to  the  hut 
of  Dunn's  grandfather,  an  old  man  named  Kelly.  Even 
here,  however,  there  was  no  sanctuary.  Betrayed  to  the 
police,  they  were  caught  like  rats  in  a  trap,  and  in  the  brief 
fight  Gilbert  was  shot.  His  companion  escaped  in  the 
scrub  for  the  time,  wounded  in  the  leg,  but  only  to  wander 
about  the  country  with  the  police  ever  on  his  heels.  He  was 
captured  at  last  by  Troopers  McHale,  Elliott  and  Hawthorne, 
of  the  Canonbar  force,  at  a  station  to  the  north  of  the  Western 
Road  and  not  far  distant  from  Dubbo.  It  began  with  a  duel 
between  McHale  and  the  outlaw,  in  which  both  were  seri- 
ously hurt,  and  it  ended  in  Dunn  being  overcome  and  haled 
off  to  Dubbo  barracks.  From  this  temporary  prison,  where 
his  wounds  were  attended  to,  he  made  a  desperate  effort 
to  escape.  But  within  a  few  hours  he  was  recaptured,  and 
in  due  time  was  sent  to  Sydney  for  trial.  In  the  February 
following  he  was  executed. 

The  Western  and  Southern  Roads,  whereon  the  Gardiner 
—  168  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

gang  practised  their  nefarious  trade,  saw  many  other  bush- 
rangers during  the  same  period.  Of  all  who  achieved  any 
notoriety  the  most  striking  figure  was  undoubtedly  Dan 
Morgan.  He  stands  out  prominently  among  the  malefactors 
of  that  day  by  reason  of  his  ferocity  and  innate  cruelty  ; 
there  was  no  redeeming  feature  in  his  case  to  lessen  the 
horror  with  which  he  was  regarded. 

As  soon  as  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  no  gang  to 
contend  against,  but  that  he  was  acting  single-handed,  or  at 
the  least  in  the  company  of  only  one  other  man,  the  police 
laid  their  plans  for  hunting  him  down.  Beginning  operations 
in  1862,  in  the  Southern  districts  of  New  South  Wales, 
Morgan  soon  had  a  long  list  of  robberies  to  his  credit.  That 
he  would  not  stop  short  of  murder  was  to  be  expected,  and  the 
death  of  a  lonely  shepherd  on  a  station  was  rightly  ascribed 
to  him.  Later  on  there  came  an  encounter  with  the  mounted 
police  near  Tumberumba,  with  fatal  results  to  one  of  the 
latter.  Sergeant  McGinnerty  and  Trooper  Churchley  were 
on  the  main  road  when  they  overtook  Morgan  ambling  along. 
Not  knowing  whom  he  had  to  deal  with,  the  sergeant  passed 
him  a  civil  "  Good-day."  The  bushranger  turned  in  his 
saddle  with  an  oath.  "  You're  one  of  the  traps  looking  for 
me,  are  you  ?  "  he  exclaimed,  and  drawing  his  revolver  he 
shot  the  poor  fellow  through  the  breast. 

In  the  accounts  of  this  occurrence  one  finds  some  dis- 
crepancies. According  to  one  writer  Morgan's  horse  was 
shot  under  him  by  McGinnerty  and  the  two  men  came  to 
hand-grips  ;  according  to  another  the  sergeant's  riderless 
horse  bolted  into  the  bush  at  the  side  of  the  road,  whither 
the  bushranger  followed.  Trooper  Churchley's  horse,  it 
would  appear,  bolted  likewise,  and  its  rider  finally  turned 
back  to  the  nearest  township  to  obtain  assistance.  What- 

—  169  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

ever  the  actual  details  may  have  been,  Sergeant  McGinnerty 
was  left  dead  on  the  road,  another  victim  to  a  bushranger's 
vengeance, l  while  Morgan  coolly  proceeded  to  the  station  at 
Round  Hill  owned  by  Mr.  Watson. 

Here  his  bloodthirsty  mood  evinced  itself  quickly.  Hav- 
ing "  stuck  up  "  the  station,  he  became  incensed  at  a  remark 
made  by  one  of  the  hands  and  began  shooting  freely.  A 
young  man  named  Heriot  was  badly  wounded  in  the  leg 
as  a  result,  and  shortly  after  Morgan  shot  one  of  the  over- 
seers, a  Mr.  McLean,  in  the  back.  Heriot  in  time  recovered, 
though  permanently  crippled,  but  McLean  succumbed  to  his 
injuries.  This  tragedy  caused  the  police  to  redouble  their 
efforts,  and  Superintendent  Carne,  of  the  south-western 
district,  sent  out  several  parties  of  troopers  to  search  the 
country.  Morgan's  day  of  reckoning,  however,  had  not  yet 
come.  He  continued  to  terrorise  that  part  of  the  colony 
for  many  months. 

Another  member  of  the  mounted  police  who  met  his 
death  at  the  bushranger's  hands  was  Sergeant  Smyth.  With 
three  other  troopers  this  officer  took  up  Morgan's  trail  in  the 
bush  and  tracked  him  as  far  as  Kyamba.  Here  the  party 
camped  for  the  night.  As  they  sat  together  in  the  little 
canvas  tent  with  a  lighted  candle  their  shadows  betrayed 
them  to  Morgan,  who  was  close  at  hand.  Firing  through  the 
tent  at  close  range,  he  shot  the  sergeant.  The  constables 
jumped  out  to  counter  the  attack,  but  the  bushranger  had 
disappeared  and  their  search  was  futile.  Smyth  never 
recovered  from  his  wounds,  dying  about  a  fortnight  later. 

Morgan's  undoing  was  the  acceptance  of  a  challenge  that 
he  dared  not  venture  into  Victoria.  It  had  been  boastfully 
asserted  that  if  he  crossed  the  border  he  would  be  captured 

1  See  Appendix  D  for  list  of  police  killed  and  wounded  by  bushrangers. 
—  170  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

with  little  delay,  the  implication  being  that  the  Victorian 
police  were  capable  of  performing  what  evidently  was  beyond 
the  power  of  the  New  South  Wales  force.  If  this  boast 
were  actually  made  it  was  certainly  unjust,  for  no  charge  of 
ineptitude  could  be  levelled  against  the  police  of  the  elder 
colony.  For  months  they  had  worked  unremittingly  to 
track  their  quarry,  and  only  the  inferiority  of  their  horses 
robbed  them  of  success.  Indeed,  so  close  did  they  run  the 
bushranger  that  fear  of  capture  had  not  a  little  to  do  with 
his  change  of  venue. 

So  into  Victoria  went  Morgan,  crossing  the  Murray  River 
at  Albury.  His  first  exploits  met  with  no  check.  Two  or 
three  stations  were  robbed,  and  then  he  ventured  upon 
what  proved  to  be  his  last  raid.  On  the  8th  of  April,  1865, 
only  a  few  days  after  his  appearance  in  this  new  field, 
he  reached  Peechalba  Station,  near  Wangaratta,  which 
was  owned  by  Messrs  McPherson  and  Rutherford.  With 
revolver  in  hand  he  forced  all  the  inmates — four  men  and 
eight  women — into  one  room,  where  they  ranged  themselves 
against  the  wall.  Then,  his  weapons  on  a  table  before  him, 
Morgan  sat  down  and  gave  instructions  for  tea  to  be  made 
for  him,  the  while  he  chatted  freely  with  Mr.  McPherson. 
At  intervals  Mrs.  McPherson  played  to  him  on  the  piano. 

Among  those  who  were  thus  bailed  up  was  a  servant 
named  Alice  Macdonald,  a  plucky  and  quick-witted  girl. 
On  the  pretence  that  one  of  her  mistress's  children  was  crying 
for  her,  she  insisted  on  leaving  the  room,  and  even  went  so 
far  as  to  smack  the  bushranger's  face  when  he  objected. 
She  had  her  way,  however,  Morgan  being  in  the  mood  to 
admire  her  audacity.  Once  outside,  the  girl  found  one  of 
the  station  men  who  had  escaped  notice  in  the  round-up, 
and  told  him  to  ride  off  at  once  to  Mr.  Rutherford's  house,  a 

—  171  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

quarter  of  a  mile  away.  She  then  returned  to  take  her  place 
in  the  line  with  the  other  prisoners. 

Mr.  Rutherford,  on  receipt  of  the  news,  sent  a  messenger 
to  Wangaratta  to  summon  the  mounted  police.  In  the 
night  a  number  of  troopers  surrounded  the  house,  and,  with 
a  few  civilian  volunteers,  waited  anxiously  for  the  dawn. 
Contrary  to  their  fears  Morgan  did  not  work  himself  into  a 
frenzy  for  bloodshed  in  the  meantime.  The  night  passed 
without  incident.  Soon  after  daylight,  having  partaken  of 
breakfast,  the  bushranger  prepared  to  leave,  and  bade  Mr. 
McPherson  get  him  the  best  horse  in  the  stables.  The 
station  owner  and  three  men  started  to  fulfil  this  request, 
with  Morgan  following  close  in  the  rear.  This  gave  the 
watchers  behind  the  fences  their  opportunity.  From  his 
position  a  station  hand,  John  Quinlan,  easily  covered  the 
bushranger.  He  took  careful  aim,  and  Morgan  dropped  with 
a  bullet  through  his  shoulder. 

As  he  fell  he  cried  out  angrily  :  "  Why  didn't  you 
challenge  me  ?  You  didn't  give  me  a  chance  !  " 

"  A  lot  of  chance  you  gave  those  other  fellows,  Morgan," 
said  one  of  those  who  now  came  forward  to  carry  him  into  a 
wool  shed  close  by.  "  Remember  McGinnerty  and  Smyth  !  " 

A  few  hours  later  the  dreaded  bushranger  was  dead,  the 
news  being  quickly  flashed  to  New  South  Wales  where,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  police  werejstill  seeking  him  hi  the  ranges. 
When  the  reward  of  £1,000  that  had  been  offered  for  his 
death  or  capture  was  distributed,  Quinlan  received  £300, 
Alice  Macdonald  £250,  the  remainder  of  the  sum  being 
divided  among  others  who  had  taken  a  notable  part  in  the 
proceedings. 

Next  in  the  list  of  New  South  Wales  bushrangers  come 
the  brothers  Clarke  and  Frederick  Ward,  alias  "  Captain 

—  172  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

Thunderbolt."  In  the  late  sixties  these  held  high  sway  in 
the  south  and  north  respectively.  That  they  had  many 
imitators  was  only  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  for  no 
individual  outlaw  leapt  into  notoriety  without  starting  a 
wave  of  bushranging  in  his  own  particular  section  of  the 
country.  Of  the  numbers  thus  attracted  to  "  the  road  " 
there  is  no  need  to  speak  in  detail ;  they  were  mere  high- 
way robbers,  with  little  distinction  between  them.  In  this 
connection,  however,  it  may  be  noted  as  a  curious  fact  that 
this  period  witnessed  the  only  case  of  a  Chinaman  turning 
bushranger. 

Sam  Poo,  the  individual  in  question,  deserted  the  diggings 
at  Mudgee  to  try  his  luck  at  "  sticking  up  '  wayfarers.  This 
promptly  brought  the  police  on  his  track,  and  he  was  con- 
fronted by  Trooper  Ward,  of  Coonabarabran.  The  latter, 
not  crediting  the  Chinaman  with  boldness  enough  to  fire, 
called  on  him  to  surrender,  but  Sam  Poo  had  no  intention 
of  doing  things  by  halves.  He  levelled  his  gun  and  shot 
the  policeman.  Ward  died  on  the  following  day,  to  be 
avenged  a  fortnight  later  by  Troopers  Todd,  Burns  and 
Macmahon,  who  with  the  assistance  of  a  black  tracker  ran 
the  miscreant  to  earth  in  the  scrub.  After  a  sharp  fight 
the  Chinaman  was  overpowered  and  disarmed.  He  was 
executed  some  months  later,  at  Bathurst. 

Thomas  and  John  Clarke,  of  Manaro,  near  Braidwood, 
found  the  path  to  crime  an  easy  one.  They  came  of  a 
criminal  family,  and  were  brought  up  in  a  criminal  atmo- 
sphere. Beginning  with  commonplace  "  cattle  duffing,"  they 
soon  advanced  to  highway  robbery.  A  third  brother,  James, 
was  early  suspected  of  complicity  with  Ben  Hall's  gang,  and 
was  eventually  sentenced  to  a  long  term  of  penal  servitude. 
Thanks  to  this  turn  of  fate  he  probably  saved  his  neck,  for 

—  173  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

there  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  had  he  not  been  "  lagged," 
he  would  have  joined  his  brothers  hi  their  career. 

To  retail  the  several  exploits  of  Thomas  and  John  Clarke 
is  beyond  the  compass  of  this  chapter.  Highway  robbery 
and  the  "  sticking  up  "  of  stations  followed  each  other  in  quick 
succession,  making  a  lengthy  list  of  crimes.  At  times  both 
men  were  associated  with  a  relative  named  Connell  and 
another  man,  Fletcher,  but  many  of  their  deeds  were  per- 
formed without  the  aid  of  these  supporters.  Owing  to 
their  wide  circle  of  friends,  so  many  of  whom  were  themselves 
not  above  suspicion,  the  Clarkes  were  constantly  kept  in- 
formed of  the  movements  of  the  police,  so  that  the  latter  were 
for  a  long  time  baffled  in  their  endeavours  to  come  to  close 
quarters. 

In  April  of  1866  the  murder  of  Constable  Miles  O'Grady, 
of  Nerrigundah,  brought  sentence  of  outlawry  upon  Thomas 
Clarke  and  Connell.  The  four  bushrangers  had  attempted 
to  raid  the  township,  when  O'Grady  and  another  trooper 
(the  sole  police  in  the  place)  sallied  out  to  meet  them.  In 
the  affray  Fletcher  was  shot  by  O'Grady,  but  the  constable 
paid  dearly  for  his  devotion  to  duty.  As  he  and  his  mate 
fell  back  down  the  open  street  to  seek  cover  he  received  a 
mortal  wound  from  the  elder  Clarke's  rifle.  The  bush- 
rangers then  jumped  on  then*  horses  and  fled  the  town, 
leaving  one  of  their  number  dead  behind  them. 

Recognising  the  great  difficulties  with  which  they  had 
to  contend,  especially  the  prevalence  of  "  bush  telegraphs  " 
and  harbourers,  the  authorities  at  last  determined  on  a  bold 
plan  to  checkmate  the  outlaws.  They  accordingly  enrolled 
as  special  constables  four  men  who  were  peculiarly  fitted  for 
the  work  in  hand.  Two  of  them  at  least  knew  the  country 
well,  and  one  had  had  intimate  dealings  with  the  Clarke 

—  174  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

family.  These  four  men  were  John  Carrol,  a  warder  in 
Darlinghurst  Gaol,  Sydney,  and  an  ex-trooper  ;  Patrick 
Kennagh  and  ^neas  McDonnell,  both  ex-warders  ;  and 
John  Phegan.  Under  pretence  of  surveying  the  party  com- 
menced to  spy  out  the  land  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
Clarke  homestead,  but  the  disguise  could  not  be  long  main- 
tained. The  bushrangers,  suspicious  of  the  new-comers, 
attacked  them  one  night,  and  thereafter  Carrol  and  his 
companions  openly  avowed  their  business. 

For  three  months  the  special  constables  gave  the  gang  no 
rest,  their  knowledge  of  the  bush  and  the  ranges  making  them 
formidable  enemies.  Then  came  the  final  tragedy.  On  a 
night  in  January  of  1867,  the  little  party  was  surprised  in  the 
scrub  near  the  Jinden  station,]in  the  Braidwood  district,  and 
every  man  was  shot  down.  Their  bodies  were  found  some 
days  after  by  a  stockman,  while  rounding  up  cattle.  The 
dastardly  murder — two  of  the  poor  fellows  had  been  shot 
kneeling,  having  apparently  surrendered — aroused  intense 
indignation  and  the  Government  immediately  offered  a  re- 
ward of  £5,000  for  the  capture  of  all  concerned  in  the  crime.1 
Furthermore,  an  extra  body  of  police  was  drafted  into  the 
district,  so  that  the  ground  should  be  well  covered.  From 
Goulburn  and  other  centres  came  Sub-Inspectors  Brennan 
and  Stephenson,  old  hands  at  bush  work,  and  with  them  some 
picked  black  trackers. 

While  at  the  end  of  1866  the  Clarke  gang  had  increased  in 
numbers  to  five  or  six,  early  in  1867  it  was  known  to  be  re- 
duced to  three  men — the  two  brothers  and  one  William 
Scott.  Other  members  had  been  killed  or  captured.  By 

1  This  was  the  highest  amount  offered  by  a  State  Government  for  the 
apprehension  of  bushrangers.  In  the  case  of  the  Kelly  gang,  for  whose 
capture  £8,000  was  offered,  both  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria  contributed 
to  the  reward. 

—  175  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

this  time  the  bush  was  literally  "  alive  with  police "  ; 
the  hunted  men  were  continually  being  driven  to  change 
their  quarters.  The  day  of  the  Clarkes — and  it  had  been 
a  long  day — was  nearing  its  end.  Towards  the  close  of 
April  a  party  of  mounted  police  consisting  of  Senior-Constable 
Wright,  and  Troopers  Walsh,  Lenehan,  Wright  and  Egan, 
got  upon  the  trail  of  the  bushrangers.  With  them,  also,  was 
a  famous  black  tracker,  named  Sir  Watkin  Wynne,  through 
whose  acuteness  chiefly  they  had  been  so  successful. 

Late  on  the  evening  of  the  27th,  a  Saturday,  they  reached 
a  hut  in  a  paddock  near  the  Jingera  range,  not  far  distant 
from  where  Carrol  and  the  other  special  constables  had  been 
murdered.  It  was  soon  discovered  that  the  wanted  men 
were  inside,  further  proof  being  afforded  by  the  presence  of 
two  fine  horses  tethered  near  by.  These  animals  were  now 
secured  by  Walsh,  while  the  rest  of  the  police  took  cover 
behind  a  haystack.  At  daybreak  the  Clarkes  came  out 
from  the  hut,  and  missing  the  horses  guessed  some  danger 
was  nigh.  They  immediately  turned  back  to  their  shelter, 
but  the  police  were  in  time  to  send  a  volley  after  them,  wound- 
ing John  Clarke.  From  the  hut,  the  loose  slabs  of  which  pro- 
vided loopholes  for  their  rifles,  the  brothers  kept  up  a  hot 
fire.  Constable  Walsh  and  Sir  Watkin  were  now  both  hit, 
the  latter  in  the  arm.1  The  bushrangers,  however,  realised 
that  the  game  was  up,  and  when  the  troopers  rushed  the 
hut  they  surrendered  and  submitted  to  be  handcuffed.  The 
party  then  retraced  their  steps  to  Ballalaba,  the  nearest 
township,  whence  the  prisoners  were  in  time  transferred 
to  Braidwood  Gaol. 

1  The  black  tracker's  wound  proved  to  be  so  severe  as  to  necessitate  the 
amputation  of  his  arm.  This  operation  he  bore  with  the  stoical  indifference 
to  pain  that  is  associated  with  savage  races.  He  was  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  sergeant-major  for  his  services  in  capturing  the  Clarkes,  and  in 
after  years  rendered  much  valuable  assistance  to  the  force. 

—  176  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

After  being  tried  at  the  Central  Criminal  Court  in 
Sydney,  in  May,  the  Clarkes  were  sentenced  to  death,  and 
were  executed  on  the  25th  of  the  following  month.  Of 
their  associates  two  had  been  shot  dead  by  the  police,  and 
another,  Tom  Connell,  sent  to  penal  servitude  for  life. 
The  fate  of  Scott  was  never  satisfactorily  cleared  up,  but  it 
has  always  been  assumed  that  he  was  murdered  by  the 
brothers,  who  perhaps  feared  that  he  would  turn  informer. 

The  bushranger  who  masqueraded  under  the  picturesque 
cognomen  of  "  Captain  Thunderbolt  "  was  a  native  of 
Windsor,  New  South  Wales,  and  an  ex-convict  who  had 
escaped  from  Cockatoo  Island.  At  the  time  Ward  took  to 
the  road  he  was  twenty-seven  and,  in  addition  to  being  a  man 
of  exceptional  strength  and  daring,  was  a  splendid  horseman. 
With  a  mount  of  racehorse  breed  he  was  more  than  a  match 
for  any  policeman  who  came  hi  sight  of  him.  What  was 
almost  of  equal  importance,  he  possessed  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  hill  country  in  which  he  made  his  re- 
treat. 

The  northern  district  was  Thunderbolt's  field  of  opera- 
tions. By  "  sticking  up  "  the  Warialda  mail  he  soon  gave  no- 
tice that  a  new  highwayman  had  appeared,  and  ere  many  days 
had  elapsed  several  other  robberies  were  put  to  his  account. 
At  various  times  subsequently  Thunderbolt  was  aided  by 
youths  whom  the  excitement  of  bushranging  drew  from  other 
employment.  One  of  these,  a  mere  boy  named  Thompson, 
was  but  sixteen  when  he  was  shot  by  the  police  in  an  en- 
counter. Of  the  same  age,  too,  was  young  Mason,  another 
of  his  companions.  This  lad  was  arrested  early  in  his  new 
career,  but  it  was  too  late  to  save  him  from  a  life  of  crime. 
He  was  released  from  prison  only  to  be  sentenced  again  and 
again. 

—  177  —  N 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

On  several  occasions  during  his  raids  Thunderbolt  came 
into  close  contact  with  the  mounted  police.  By  his  fine 
horsemanship,  however,  he  was  always  able  to  show  a  clean 
pair  of  heels,  so  that  for  six  years  he  pursued  his  calling 
without  any  serious  check.  The  inevitable  reckoning 
arrived  in  1870.  In  May  of  that  year  he  was  engaged  in 
"  sticking  up  "  a  hostelry  a  few  miles  out  of  Uralla  when 
intelligence  of  his  whereabouts  was  conveyed  to  the  police. 
The  officer  in  charge  at  the  township,  Senior-Constable 
Mulhall,  rode  out  to  try  conclusions  with  the  bushranger, 
instructing  Trooper  Walker  to  follow  as  quickly  as  possible. 
Mulhall  found  Thunderbolt,  as  his  informant  had  stated, 
at  the  inn,  but  on  firing  his  revolver  his  horse  took  fright 
and  bolted  with  him  back  along  the  road  to  Uralla. 

The  rest  of  the  story  belongs  to  Trooper  A.  B.  Walker. 
On  meeting  his  comrade  and  learning  that  Thunderbolt  with 
a  mate  were  just  ahead  he  pushed  on  and  saw  the  two  men 
part  company.  Judging  rightly  that  the  one  who  turned 
into  the  bush  was  the  "  Captain,"  Walker  spurred  after  him, 
being  met  with  a  revolver  bullet  on  the  way.  Mulhall, 
meanwhile,  followed  the  other  man,  who  took  another  direc- 
tion. Thunderbolt  now  made  an  attempt  to  regain  the 
high  road,  but  this  move  the  trooper  thwarted,  driving  his 
quarry  down  a  gully  leading  to  the  Rocky  River.  Reach- 
ing a  deep  pool  the  bushranger  left  his  horse  and  plunged 
into  the  water,  evidently  expecting  his  pursuer  to  follow 
him.  But  the  trooper  was  no  novice.  He  had  no  intention 
of  allowing  the  other  to  outwit  him  by  doubling  back  to 
his  horse.  He  promptly  shot  the  animal  and  then  made  a 
dash  along  the  bank  to  a  spot  where  he  could  cut  off  his  man. 

Face  to  face  across  a  narrow  strip  of  water  policeman  and 
bushranger  met  for  the  final  struggle.  The  spot  was  a  wild 

—  178  — 


BXJSHRANG1NG  DAYS 

and  lonely  one,  the  pool  being  surrounded  by  granite  rocks, 
beyond  which  the  thick  scrub  ran  up  the  hillside. 

Thunderbolt  was  the  first  to  speak.  "  Who  the  blazes 
are  you  ?  "  he  asked,  allowing  for  some  modification  of  terms. 

"Nevermind  who  I  am,  "answered  the  trooper,  who  was 
in  rough  bush  dress.  "  Put  your  hands  up  and  surrender." 

"  Are  you  a  policeman  ?  "  was  the  next  question. 

"  Yes,  I  am,"  said  Walker,  again  calling  on  the  other  to 
yield  himself  prisoner. 

"  Are  you  married  ?  "  asked  Thunderbolt. 

The  trooper  replied  that  he  was,  adding  that  he  had 
considered  that  before  he  came  there. 

"  Then  you  had  better  .think  of  your  family,"  said  the 
bushranger,  grimly. 

"I've  thought  of  them,"  said  Walker.  "Now,  will 
you  surrender  ?  " 

"  No,  I  won't,"  returned  the  other,  "  I'll  die  first !  " 

"It's  you  or  I  for  it,  then,"  cried  Walker,  and  he  forced 
his  horse  into  the  water. 

Thunderbolt  at  this  drew  his  revolver  and  fired  point 
blank  at  the  trooper,  but  by  good  fortune  his  shots  missed 
their  mark,  Walker's  horse  having  stumbled  as  it  went  down 
the  bank.  The  bushranger  next  rushed  into  the  pool  and 
the  two  men  engaged  in  a  fierce  hand  to  hand  tussle.  As 
they  swayed  together  in  the  water  Walker  got  in  a  shot  at 
close  quarters,  wounding  his  opponent  severely  and  making 
him  loosen  his  grip  for  the  moment.  Then,  holding  the 
empty  weapon  by  the  barrel,  he  clubbed  the  other  over  the 
head  with  it  repeatedly,  until  Thunderbolt  fell  back  and 
sank.  Walker  dismounted,  dragged  him  up,  and  laid  the 
bushranger  on  the  bank,  believing  him  to  be  already  dead. 
He  then  returned  to  the  inn  for  assistance,  a  party  setting 

—  179  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

out  some  hours  later  to  bring  in  the  body.  To  every  one's 
astonishment  it  had  disappeared,  but  the  wounded  bush- 
ranger was  found  not  far  off  in  the  bushes,  whither  he  had 
dragged  himself.  Too  weak  to  stand,  he  was  carried  in  a 
cart  to  Uralla  and  there,  almost  immediately  after  arrival, 
he  expired. 

For  his  gallantry  in  this  encounter  Trooper  Walker 
gained  instant  promotion,  besides  receiving  the  substantial 
reward  of  £200  that  had  been  offered  by  the  authorities. 
He  later  rose  to  be  Superintendent,  being  placed  in  charge 
of  the  Goulburn  district,  and  is  to-day  the  senior  officer 
holding  that  rank.  It  may  be  added  that  the  man  seen  in 
Thunderbolt's  company  proved  to  be  a  drover  whom  he 
had  bailed  up  and  whose  horse  he  was  trying  at  the  moment 
that  the  police  came  upon  the  scene.  His  own  steed, 
a  thoroughbred,  he  had  left  standing  by  the  inn. 

In  the  story  of  Frederic  Ward's  career,  stained  as  it 
was  with  many  black  crimes,  it  is  pleasing  to  find  one  re- 
deeming feature.  For  several  years  before  his  death  he  was 
accompanied  and  assisted  by  a  half-caste  woman  to  whom 
he  was  greatly  attached.  In  all  his  vicissitudes  he  remained 
faithful  to  her,  and  when  at  last  she  fell  ill  he  found  a  resting 
place  for  her  at  no  little  risk  to  himself.  Such  cases  of  grati- 
tude are  rare  in  the  records  of  bushranging.  One  recalls  by 
way  of  contrast  the  fate  of  Howe's  paramour,  Black  Mary, 
treacherously  fired  upon  by  the  man  for  whom  she  had  given 
up  all.  Ward's  loyalty  to  his  mistress  may  be  placed  un- 
grudgingly to  his  credit  account. 

As  has  been  seen  New  South  Wales  saw  the  birth  of 
bushranging  and  suffered  severely  through  it,  but  it  must  not 
be  assumed  that  the  other  parts  of  Australia  escaped  being 
afflicted  with  the  same  pest.  Victoria,  Queensland,  and 

—  180  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

South  Australia,  each  had  its  own  highwaymen  of  more  or 
less  fame,  and  something  may  be  said  of  these  gentry  in  deal- 
ing later  with  these  colonies.  In  Victoria,  particularly, 
bushranging  came  to  be  practised  on  a  grand  scale  that 
eclipsed  anything  that  had  gone  before  ;  the  Kelly  gang  of 
the  seventies  put  Gardiner  and  his  contemporaries  in  the 
shade  by  the  extent  of  their  depredations.  Before  the 
Kellys,  however,  Victoria  had  Captain  Melville  and  Power, 
to  mention  two  of  the  best-known  outlaws,  and  a  few 
notes  about  the  former  may  be  given  here. 

Frank  McCallum,  who  posed  to  the  world  as  "  Captain 
Melville,"  was  a  runaway  convict  from  Van  Diemen's  Land. 
In  the  "  roaring  fifties  "  he  made  a  daring  escape  from  the 
penal  settlement  to  Victoria,  where  he  mingled  with  the 
motley  horde  of  miners  at  the  Ballarat  diggings.  This  was 
early  in  1852.  Before  the  year  was  out  he  had  abandoned 
pick  and  shovel  for  "  the  road,"  taking  a  kindred  spirit  with 
him  to  work  in  the  Geelong  district.  One  of  the  daring 
escapades  recorded  of  him  at  this  time  was  the  "  sticking  up  " 
of  a  station  on  which  were  eighteen  men.  By  force  of  arms 
Melville  and  his  mate  herded  the  whole  of  the  company  into 
a  wool  shed,  whence  they  were  summoned  one  by  one  to 
be  tied  to  a  fence. 

For  some  months  after  the  colony  had  little  to  talk  about 
save  the  bushranger's  exploits.  But  his  daring  and  bravado 
led  to  Melville's  undoing  before  he  could  quite  realise  his 
ambition  to  become  another  Claude  Duval.  While  in 
Geelong  for  a  few  days'  recreation  he  was  indiscreet  enough 
to  boast  of  his  identity,  and  some  one  overhearing  him 
gave  information  to  the  police.  A  party  of  troopers  at 
once  proceeded  to  the  house  where  he  was  located.  On  the 
alarm  being  given  Melville  jumped  from  a  window  and  ran  for 

—  181  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

his  life,  eluding  the  police  for  the  time.  He  was  arrested 
soon  after  while  endeavouring  to  steal  a  horse  from  a  young 
man  whom  he'met  in  the  street,  was  promptly  gaoled,  and 
subsequently  sentenced  to  thirty-two  years'  imprisonment. 
|  While  in  the  hulks  at  Williamstown,  Melville  headed  a 
desperate  attempt  to  escape,  two  warders  being  killed  by  the 
convicts.  All  the  latter  were  recaptured  and  the  leaders 
sentenced  to  death.  For  some  technical  reason  the  extreme 
penalty  was  not  exacted,  but  Melville  was  determined  not 
to  endure  longer  the  rigours  of  the  chain  gang.  In  No- 
vember 1856  he  put  an  end  to  his  life  by  strangling  himself 
in  his  cell.  In  a  brief  memoir  of  this  Victorian  character 
it  is  recorded  that  during  one  prison  term  he  whiled  away  the 
time  by  translating  the  Bible  into  an  aboriginal  dialect 
with  which  he  was  familiar..  In  earlier  days  he  had  lived 
for  a  considerable  period  with  a  tribe  in  the  interior.  Of 
that  portion  of  his  life  nothing  is  known,  but  what  interest- 
ing story  lay  behind  one  may  conjecture. 

With  the  capture  of  the  "  Moonlight  "  gang  of  bush- 
rangers we  may  bring  this  chapter  of  colonial  history  to  a 
close.  Captain  Moonlight,  the  leader,  was  an  Irishman 
curiously  named  Scott,  who  emigrated  to  Victoria  via  New 
Zealand.  After  some  minor  robberies  he  openly  took  to  the 
highway  with  five  associates,  among  whom  were  two  youths, 
Rogan  and  Nesbit.  The  first  operations  of  the  gang  were  in 
Victoria,  but  in  time  they  crossed  the  border  into  New 
South  Wales.  Their  rashness,  as  was  conversely  the  case 
with  Morgan,  cost  them  dearly. 

One  November  evening  they  proceeded  to  "  stick  up  "  the 
Macdonald  station  at  Wantabadgery,  on  the  Murrumbidgee 
River.  Some  twenty  or  more  people  were  here  kept  prisoners 
while  the  bushrangers  raided  the  place,  and  in  the  course 

—  182  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

of  a  few  hours  the  number  was  increased  to  thirty-five  as 
fresh  victims  were  brought  in.  By  a  lucky  chance  one 
station  hand,  named  Alexander  Macdonald,  got  away  on  a 
horse  and  notified  the  Wagga  Wagga  police  of  what  was 
happening.  Four  mounted  men  thereupon  set  off  for 
Wantabadgery,  where  they  found  the  gang  still  in  posses- 
sion. The  troopers  now  waited  for  a  reinforcement  of 
five  men  from  Gundagai  station  and  then  advanced  to  the 
attack. 

When  the  affray  commenced,  it  is  said,  quite  three  hun- 
dred people  from  the  surrounding  district  had  assembled  to 
witness  the  fighting.  The  first  honours  fell  to  the  police,  but 
soon  afterwards  Trooper  Bowen  was  shot,  almost  at  the 
moment  that  he  wounded  a  second  bushranger.  A  third 
man  was  hit  by  Trooper  Carroll,  and  some  little  time  later 
Moonlight  and  his  companions  surrendered.  It  was  found 
that  Nesbit  had  been  shot  dead,  while  another  man  was 
so  badly  hurt  that  he  subsequently  died.  On  the  police 
side  the  one  casualty  was  Trooper  Bowen,  whose  wound 
proved  mortal  within  a  few  days. 

Moonlight  and  Rogan  were  condemned  to  death  and 
hung  at  Sydney,  their  surviving  comrades  being  sent  into 
penal  servitude  for  life.  Constable  Carroll  and  the  other 
troopers  engaged  in  this  notable  capture  were  generously 
awarded  sums  ranging  from  £50  to  £100,  while  poor  Bowen 
was  commemorated  by  a  public  monument.  And  so  ended 
as  sensational  an  encounter  between  police  and  bush- 
rangers as  Australians  had  heard  for  many  a  long  day, 
an  encounter,  indeed,  that  was  not  forgotten  until  the  sud- 
den rise  of  the  Kellys  provided  a  new  and  all-absorbing 
topic  of  conversation. 

-183- 


CHAPTER   XI 

BUSHRANGING   DAYS. — IV 

The  Kelly  Gang — Constable  Fitzpatrick  attacked — The  tragedy  at  Stringy 
Bark  Creek — Troopers  Kennedy,  Scanlan  and  Lonergan  shot — Escape 
of  Mclntyre — The  police  hunt  begins — Hart  and  Byrne — Proclamation 
of  outlawry — At  Euroa — Robbery  of  the  bank — The  raid  on  Jerilderie 
— "  £8,000  Reward  " — Police  officers  in  the  field — A  chance  missed — 
Sub-Inspector  O'Connor — The  black  trackers — Hoaxing  the  police — 
Aaron  Sherritt — Superintendent  Hare — A  trooper's  pluck — Murder 
of  Sherritt — The  Kellys  at  Glenrowan — Superintendent  Sadleir — 
Death  of  Byrne — Ned  Kelly  captured — Dan  Kelly  and  Hart — A  Royal 
Commission. 

PERHAPS  no  more  dramatic  figures  are  to  be  found  in 
the  whole  gallery  of  Australian  bushrangers  than 
Ned  and  Dan  Kelly,  with  their  associates,  Steve  Hart  and 
Joe  Byrne.  Certainly  none  others  have  excited  such  wide- 
spread interest  or  inspired  so  many  writers.  Quite  a  litera- 
ture exists  on  the  subject  of  their  history,  while  to  the  present 
day  the  Kelly  drama,  with  some  meretricious  ornamenta- 
tion, is  enacted  in  all  its  terrible  verisimilitude  on  stage  and 
bioscope  for  the  edification  of  a  younger  generation.  The 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  For  over  two  years  the  gang  set 
at  defiance  the  government  and  police  of  two  states,  bringing 
off  several  daring  and  successful  coups,  and  they  went 
out  at  the  last  with  something  of  a  blaze  of  fireworks.  In 
some  quarters,  unfortunately,  there  has  been  a  tendency 
to  glorify  their  exploits,  to  invest  these  common  thieves  and 
cut-throats  with  a  false  glamour  of  romance.  Such  a  ten- 
dency is  to  be  deplored.  One  does  not  willingly  linger  on 

-184- 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

the  sordid  details  of  their  crimes,  but  from  a  police  point  of 
view  it  is  important  that  the  story  of  the  Kellys  should  be 
told  at  some  length. 

In  1878,  when  they  first  leapt  into  the  public  eye,  the 
Kellys  were  well-known  to  the  police  as  habitual  thieves. 
It  was  a  criminal  family.  The  father  had  been  a  transported 
felon  ;  the  three  sons,  Ned,  James  and  Dan,  were  all  expert 
cattle-duffers  and  horse  "  planters,"  and  Ned  was  strongly 
suspected  of  association  with  the  bushranger  Power,  who 
had  been  captured  a  few  years  back  ;  some  of  their  relatives 
were  also  interested  hi  the  same  lucrative  industry.  The 
"  Kelly  country,"  by  which  was  meant  the  north-eastern 
part  of  Victoria  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Warby  and  Strathbogie 
ranges,  was  notoriously  unsafe  to  travel  through  with  stock. 
Cautious  drovers  went  out  of  their  way  to  avoid  it.  Many 
hundreds  of  horses  were  stolen  at  various  times  by  the  gang, 
and  disposed  of  in  the  markets  of  Melbourne,  Ballarat  and 
Geelong,  or  at  some  town  across  the  border. 

The  second  son;  James,  disappeared  from  the  family  in 
1876,  when  he  fell  into  the  clutches  of  the  New  South  Wales 
police  for  highway  robbery.  He  had  previously  been  con- 
victed and  was  now  sentenced  to  a  term  of  ten  years'  im- 
prisonment. The  youngest  of  the  trio,  Dan,  was  wanted  two 
years  later  on  no  fewer  than  six  charges  of  horse-stealing. 
According  to  instructions,  Constable  Fitzpatrick  of  Benalla 
proceeded  to  the  Kellys'  home  at  Greta  to  arrest  the  youth- 
ful criminal,  who  was  then  but  seventeen.  Ned  Kelly,  it 
may  be  said,  was  twenty-four. 

The  policeman  found  the  object  of  his  quest  without 
difficulty.  Dan  was  at  home  and  received  the  news  of  his 
arrest  calmly.  He  pleaded,  however,  that  he  had  been  out 
all  day  without  food,  so  Fitzpatrick  consented  to  wait 

-185  - 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

while  he  had  a  meal.  In  the  meantime  Mrs.  Kelly  asked  to 
see  the  warrant.  "  I  haven't  one,"  said  the  constable,  "  but 
I've  got  a  telegram  which  is  just  as  good."  Being  invited 
to  sit  down  at  the  table,  Fitzpatrick  went  inside  the  house, 
or  hut,  for  it  was  little  better,  and  so  played  into  their  hands. 

"  If  my  son  Ned  was  here  you  wouldn't  take  Dan," 
said  the  mother.  "  He'd  throw  you  out  of  the  window." 

Dan  suddenly  got  up.  "  Why,  here  is  Ned,"  he  ex- 
claimed. Then,  as  Fitzpatrick  turned  around  to  look,  he 
flung  himself  on  the  constable,  while  Mrs.  Kelly  struck 
the  latter  on  the  helmet  with  a  spade  that  was  being  used 
as  a  fire  shovel.  At  the  sound  of  the  scuffle  in  rushed  Ned 
Kelly  and  two  other  men,  one  of  them  his  brother-in-law, 
William  Skillian,  and  the  other  a  man  named  Williams. 
Both  the  latter  joined  in  the  fray.  Ned  had  a  revolver 
in  his  hand,  and  with  this  he  suddenly  fired  at  Fitzpatrick 
wounding  him  in  the  wrist.  Affecting  to  be  sorry  for  this, 
because  he  had  not  recognised  the  policeman,  whom  he  knew, 
Ned  helped  to  extract  the  bullet  and  to  bind  up  the  wound. 
He  then  warned  the  other  not  to  tell  how  the  injury  came 
about  and  eventually  allowed  him  to  ride  back  to  Benalla. 

Fitzpatrick  gave  his  version  of  the  affair  to  his  superior 
and  on  the  next  day  Mrs.  Kelly,  Skillian  and  Williams  were 
arrested.  All  three  were  sent  to  gaol  for  varying  terms. 
Ned  and  Dan  Kelly,  however,  were  nowhere  to  be  seen,  and 
the  troopers  searched  the  neighbouring  bush  without  avail. 
As  a  precautionary  measure  the  police  made  several  other 
arrests  of  persons  suspected  of  complicity  with  the  wanted 
men,  in  the  hope  of  putting  a  check  upon  "  bush  telegraphs." 
But  the  Kellys'  friends  were  too  numerous ;  the  police  net 
was  not  thrown  far  enough. 

The  Fitzpatrick  incident  occurred  in  April  1878.  For 
—  186  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

six  months,  although  a  reward  of  £100  was  offered  for  their 
capture,  the  two  Kellys  remained  at  large  in  the  bush, 
during  which  period  they  were  believed  to  have  taken  part 
in  some  highway  robberies  that  were  committed.  Then,  in 
October,  the  colony  was  startled  by  the  news  of  a  terrible 
tragedy  in  the  Wombat  Ranges,  where  the  brothers,  with 
two  confederates,  had  pitched  their  camp.  A  police  party 
of  four  men  had  been  surprised  by  the  gang  and  three  of 
the  troopers  shot  dead. 

It  was  from  Trooper  T.  Mclntyre,  the  survivor,  that  the 
story  of  the  affair  was  gleaned.  With  Sergeant  Kennedy  and 
Constables  Scanlan  and  Lonergan,  he  had  been  sent  out 
from  Mansfield  to  search  the  ranges  at  the  head  of  the  King 
River.  Another  party,  under  Sergeant  Steele,  had  set  out 
on  a  similar  expedition  from  Greta,  great  secrecy  having 
been  preserved  in  both  cases,  while  there  was  also  Detective 
Michael  Ward,  a  very  smart  officer,  at  work  in  the  Fern  Hills. 
It  is  presumable,  however,  that  the  movements  of  the  Mans- 
field police  were  observed  and  reported  to  the  Kellys,  for 
it  was  apparent  afterwards  that  they  had  lain  in  ambush 
in  readiness  for  their  enemies. 

Sergeant  Kennedy  and  his  companions  left  the  township 
on  the  25th  of  October.  Having  travelled  some  twenty 
miles  into  the  bush  they  camped  on  Stringy  Bark  Creek,  with 
no  suspicion  that  the  gang  was  in  the  vicinity.  It  was  be- 
lieved that  the  latter  were  many  miles  farther  up  the  river. 
There  was  nothing  to  alarm  them  during  the  night.  In 
the  morning  the  sergeant  took  constable  Scanlan  with  him 
to  make  a  preliminary  survey  of  the  district,  while  Mclntyre 
and  Lonergan  stopped  behind.  At  5  p.m.  the  two  troopers 
were  busying  themselves  making  tea  when  there  came  the 
peremptory  summons,  "  Bail  up  !  Put  up  your  hands  !  " 

-187- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Ned  Kelly,  Dan  Kelly,  and  two  other  men,  all  mounted,  were 
at  the  entrance  to  the  clearing  with  rifles  levelled  and  cover- 
ing them.  Mclntyre  had  put  down  his  revolver  by  the  tent 
door,  and  he  had  no  arms  upon  him.  Lonergan's  weapon 
was  in  his  belt.  Making  a  dash  for  a  tree  he  was  about  to 
pull  out  the  pistol  when  one  of  the  rifles  cracked,  and  he  fell 
dead. 

In  obedience  to  Ned  Kelly's  command  Mclntyre  sur- 
rendered and  submitted  to  be  searched.  He  was  then 
ordered  on  penalty  of  instant  death  to  sit  down  and  behave 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  On  the  arrival  of  the  ser- 
geant and  Scanlan  he  was  to  summon  them  to  surrender,  in 
which  case  Ned  promised  their  lives  should  be  spared. 
If,  on  their  approach  he  attempted  to  warn  them  of  danger, 
he  might  expect  a  bullet  through  his  brain.  The  four  bush- 
rangers, having  collected  all  the  police  arms  in  the  camp, 
withdrew  behind  the  trees  to  await  the  coming  of  the 
others.  Some  minutes  later  Kennedy  and  Scanlan  rode  up. 
Mclntyre  now  rose  up  and  carried  out  his  instructions. 
"  Sergeant,"  he  said,  "  we  are  surrounded !  You  had 
better  surrender  !  " 

Kennedy  did  not  believe  his  ears.  He  gave  a  laugh  and 
was  placing  his  hand  on  his  revolver  when  Ned  Kelly  sprang 
out  into  the  open.  "  Put  up  your  hands  !  "  he  ordered. 
Both  Kennedy  and  Scanlan  jumped  from  their  horses  to 
take  cover,  but  Kelly  and  his  mates  were  too  quick  for  them. 
Almost  instantly  Scanlan  was  shot  down,  while  the  sergeant 
fell  to  his  knees  wounded.  The  noise  of  the  firing  had  so 
startled  Kennedy's  horse  that  it  promptly  bolted,  and  as 
it  rushed  past  him  Mclntyre  flung  himself  on  its  back  and 
rode  at  full  gallop  down  the  creek.  Two  or  three  shots 
followed  him,  but  luckily  none  took  effect. 

—  188  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

For  this  action  in  deserting  his  officer  and  seeking  his 
own  safety  Mclntyre  has  been  severely  censured  by  some. 
But  who  shall  blame  him  ?  Who  shall  say  that  he 
would  have  acted  otherwise  in  such  circumstances  ?  The 
trooper  was  unarmed  ;  he  had  Ned  Kelly's  assurance  that 
the  sergeant's  life  would  be  spared  if  he  surrendered — and 
what  other  course  was  left  open  to  Kennedy  ?  Furthermore, 
by  seizing  this  chance  to  escape  he  might  procure  assistance, 
without  which  they  were  helpless.  Right  or  wrong  in  his 
decision,  Mclntyre  soon  put  some  distance  between  him 
and  the  bushrangers.  Then  his  horse,  which  had  been  hit, 
failed  him,  and  he  crawled  into  a  piece  of  scrub  wherein  he 
found  a  wombat  hole.  Here  he  hid  for  some  time,  hearing 
his  baffled  pursuers  searching  for  him  close  by.  While 
thus  concealed  the  trooper  wrote  a  hasty  memorandum  of 
what  had  occurred,  tearing  the  leaves  out  of  his  pocket-book, 
and  placing  them  in  the  hole.  After  dark  he  started  again 
on  his  perilous  journey,  to  reach  Mansfield  early  in  the 
following  afternoon. 

On  learning  the  sad  news  Inspector  Pewtress,  the  officer 
at  Mansfield,  set  out  for  the  scene  with  a  strong  party  of 
troopers.  They  saw  nothing  of  the  Kellys,  but  they  found 
the  lifeless  bodies  of  Lonergan  and  Scanlan.  That  of  Ken- 
nedy was  discovered  some  days  later,  a  few  hundred  yards 
from  the  camp,  with  three  bullet  wounds  in  it.  Over  the 
face  of  the  dead  man  was  thrown  a  cloak,  this  having  been 
done  by  Ned  Kelly  himself  as  a  tribute  to  "  the  bravest 
man  he  had  ever  met."  The  leader  of  the  bushrangers 
said  afterwards  that  Kennedy  had  not  given  up  until  the 
last  shot  from  his  revolver  had  been  fired. 

It  was  a  sad  reflection  on  the  Government  of  the  day  that 
the  police  parties  despatched  in  search  of  the  gang  were  so 

—  180  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

poorly  armed.  The  only  two  rifles  Kennedy  and  his  troopers 
carried  had  been  furnished  them  by  a  Mansfield  resident, 
who  noticed  how  ill-equipped  they  were,  and  it  was  a  well- 
known  fact  at  the  time  that  the  bushrangers  were  all  armed 
with  rifles  of  an  up-to-date  pattern.  The  protest  that  was 
made  against  this  laxity  was  well-deserved.  As  a  police 
officer  remarked  to  the  writer,  it  was  almost  like  sentencing 
a  man  to  death  to  send  him  hunting  bushrangers  with  only 
a  revolver. 

Where  the  Kellys  and  their  two  companions,  Steve  Hart 
and  Joe  Byrne,  had  sought  refuge  no  one  knew — no  one 
except  their  sympathisers.  All  four  men  were  now  pro- 
claimed outlaws,  for  the  Victorian  Government,  following 
the  precedent  of  New  South  Wales,  hastily  passed  an  Out- 
lawry Bill,  framed  on  similar  lines  to  the  Felons'  Appre- 
hension Act.  But  in  vain  were  the  rewards  for  the  mis- 
creants increased  to  £500  in  each  case ;  in  vain  was  the 
country  searched  and  patrolled  for  miles  around.  No 
news  of  their  whereabouts  leaked  out  until  early  in  Decem- 
ber, when  a  station  at  Faithfull's  Creek,  near  Euroa,  was 
"  stuck  up  "  by  the  gang.  Mr.  Macaulay,  the  manager,  per- 
tinently asked  Ned  Kelly  why  he  went  to  so  much  trouble 
to  secure  what  he  wanted.  All  the  station  hands  had  been 
collected  and  placed  under  lock  and  key,  and  a  great  show 
of  force  was  made.  "  You  can  have  everything  you  want 
without  all  this  nonsense,"  he  is  reported  to  have  said : 
"  and  as  for  horses,  we've  none  here  better  than  those  you've 
got."  To  this  Ned  answered  darkly  that  he  had  something 
else  in  view.  What  this  purpose  was  the  manager  was  soon 
to  learn.  The  gang  knew  that  by  the  shooting  of  the  police 
officers  in  the  Wombat  Ranges  they  had  "  burnt  their  boats 
behind  them, ' '  and  they  had  resolved  on  making  a  daring  coup. 

—  190  — 


BtJSHRANGtNG  DAYS 

After  a  day's  wait  (four  men  who  were  returning  to  town 
having  been  added  to  the  captives),  Ned  Kelly  announced 
his  intention  to  rob  the  bank  at  Euroa.  He  procured  a 
cheque  for  £3  from  Mr.  Macaulay,  and  with  this  the  two 
brothers  and  Hart  proceeded  to  the  township,  three  miles 
distant.  One  of  their  prisoners  was  a  travelling  hawker, 
of  whose  store  of  clothing  they  made  use  in  order  to  dress 
for  the  part.  They  also  took  his  cart  and  another  light 
vehicle,  Hart  alone  riding  on  horseback.  The  other  member 
of  the  gang,  Joe  Byrne,  was  left  in  sole  charge  of  the  station. 
Before  departing,  however,  the  precaution  was  taken  to 
cut  the  telegraph  wires  by  the  railway  line,  the  posts  being 
carried  into  the  farm  buildings  to  prevent  communication 
being  re-established  easily. 

In  Euroa  the  bushrangers  found  the  bank  already  closed, 
but  after  some  little  pressure  Mr.  Scott,  the  manager,  con- 
sented to  cash  the  cheque.  Once  inside  the  building  Ned 
Kelly  flashed  out  his  revolver  with  the  order  to  "  Bail  up  !  " 
and  the  manager,  accountant  and  two  clerks  were  quickly 
in  his  power.  Steve  Hart,  entering  the  premises  from  the 
back,  now  joined  his  leader,  to  assist  by  securing  all  the 
firearms  in  the  place.  Since  the  gang's  outbreak  all  the 
banks  in  the  neighbouring  townships  had  provided  their 
employes  with  guns  in  the  anticipation  of  a  raid. 

From  the  Euroa  bank  the  Kellys  got  in  all  over  £1,900 
in  cash  and  notes,  together  with  some  30  oz.  of  gold  dust. 
When  he  was  satisfied  that  the  haul  was  complete  Ned 
gave  orders  that  the  entire  household  was  to  accompany 
him  back  to  the  station.  The  manager,  his  wife,  children 
and  servants,  with  the  accountant  and  two  clerks,  were 
accordingly  packed  into  the  carts  and  Mr.  Scott's  own  buggy, 
and  as  quickly  as  possible  the  procession  started.  On  reach- 

—  191  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

ing  the  station  they  found  all  safe  there,  Byrne  having  only 
to  report  the  capture  of  a  telegraph  repairer  who  had  been 
sent  up  the  line  on  the  discovery  of  the  breakdown. 

The  next  exploit  of  the  gang  was  the  "  sticking  up  "  of  the 
bank  at  Jerilderie  in  New  South  Wales.  This  occurred  in 
February  1879,  only  two  months  after  the  descent  upon 
Euroa.  The  first  move  was  made  at  midnight  on  the  9th, 
when  the  two  constables  in  charge  of  the  little  police  station 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  town  were  roused  up  by  an  urgent 
summons.  "  There's  a  big  row  on  down  at  Davidson's 
Hotel,"  shouted  out  this  late  caller,  "  you're  wanted  at 
once."  Constables  Devine  and  Richards  tumbled  out  of 
bed,  dressed  and  went  out,  to  immediately  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  Kelly s.  The  two  officers  were  then  disarmed 
and  locked  up  in  their  own  watch-house,  while  Mrs.  Devine 
and  her  children  were  shut  up  in  another  part  of  the  building. 

All  the  following  day,  a  Sunday,  the  outlaws — all  four 
being  present — lay  low.  To  allay  any  suspicion  Dan  Kelly, 
Byrne  and  Hart  put  on  police  uniforms,  but  there  was  no 
real  occasion  for  them  to  go  abroad  save  once.  This  was 
when  it  was  learnt  that  it  was  Mrs.  Devine's  custom  to  go 
into  town  early  on  the  Sabbath  morning  to  prepare  the 
church  for  service.  Ned  Kelly  decided  that  she  must  do 
this  as  usual,  so  the  lady  went  about  her  duties  with  Byrne 
in  attendance,  returning  in  due  course  to  the  station.  After- 
wards, during  the  afternoon,  Byrne  and  Hart  in  police 
uniforms  took  a  walk  through  the  town  with  Constable 
Richards.  The  object  was  to  learn  the  position  of  the  prin- 
cipal buildings,  etc.  It  was  agreed  that  if  they  were  ac- 
costed, the  constable  was  to  introduce  them  as  new  men 
sent  to  the  town  from  headquarters. 

The  actual  raid  was  planned  for  Monday.  At  about 
—  192  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

10  a.m.  the  gang  set  out  for  the  town,  dressed  as  troopers, 
and  accompanied  by  Constable  Richards.  In  this  fashion 
they  passed  down  the  main  street,  Hart  and  Byrne  alone 
being  on  horseback,  and,  strange  to  say,  excited  little  atten- 
tion. It  was  assumed  by  many  that  Richards  was  showing 
some  friends  of  his  round  the  town.  Mr.  Gill,  the  editor 
of  a  Jerilderie  paper,  met  the  party  in  the  road  and  remarked 
to  a  companion  that  "  those  smart  policemen  would  be  the 
coves  to  send  after  the  Kellys  !  "  The  newspaper  man  was 
probably  the  first  to  scent  any  danger.  He  was  then  on 
his  way  to  the  police  station,  and  on  arrival  there,  he  was 
told  by  Mrs.  Devine  to  go  away  or  he  would  be  shot.  "  You 
will  hear  all  about  it  when  you  go  down  the  town,"  she 
added.  Mr.  Gill  thereupon  took  counsel  with  Mr.  Rankin, 
a  well-known  resident  of  Jerilderie,  and  the  two  with 
another  man  made  their  way  towards  the  bank.  But 
they  were  too  late.  The  Kellys  were  already  in  possession, 
and  of  the  three  Gill  alone  managed  to  escape. 

From  the  statement  of  Mr.  Living,  the  accountant  of 
the  bank,  we  learn  how  the  "  sticking  up  "  was  carried  out. 
The  gang  had  taken  possession  of  the  Royal  Hotel,  which 
backed  on  to  the  bank,  and  made  use  of  it  to  enter  the 
premises  from  the  rear.  Mr.  Living  turned  round  on  his  stool 
at  the  sound  of  footsteps  in  the  passage,  and  found  himself 
looking  into  the  barrel  of  a  revolver.  "  I'm  Ned  Kelly," 
was  the  brief  exclamation,  "  keep  quiet  if  you  value  your 
life ! " 

The  intruder  was  in  reality  Byrne,  but  the  effect  was 
the  same.  Under  the  other's  orders  Mr.  Living  yielded  up 
what  arms  there  were  in  the  room,  and  then  with  young 
Mackie,  his  assistant,  was  escorted  to  the  hotel.  There 
were  several  prisoners  here  guarded  by  Ned  Kelly.  Mr. 

—  193  —  o 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Cox,  the  landlord,  following  instructions,  was  serving  at 
the  bar,  so  that  no  one  coming  in  should  suspect  anything 
was  wrong. 

Ned  Kelly  now  demanded  Mr.  Tarleton,  the  bank  man- 
ager, and  Mr.  Living  went  back  to  find  him.  Tarleton, 
who  was  in  his  bath,  was  incredulous  at  the  news,  but  on 
joining  the  little  company  at  the  hotel  he  saw  that  there 
was  no  mistake.  "  Ned,"  says  Mr.  Boxall  in  his  account 
of  the  affair,  "  had  hitherto  been  walking  round  as  a  sort 
of  inspector-general  of  the  proceedings,  and  giving  orders. 
He  now  entered  the  room  and  ordered  drinks  to  be  served 
all  round.  Then  he  made  a  speech  in  which  he  blamed 
Constable  Fitzpatrick  for  all  that  had  occurred.  "  I  wasn't 
within  a  hundred  miles  of  Greta  when  he  was  shot,"  he  said, 
"  and  up  to  then  I'd  never  killed  a  man  in  my  life."  He 
went  on  to  say  that  he  had  stolen  two  hundred  and  eighty 
horses  from  Whitby's  station,  and  had  sold  them  at  Baum- 
garten's.  He  took  out  a  revolver  and  exclaimed  :  "  This 
was  Lonergan's  !  I  took  it  from  him.  The  gun  I  shot 
him  with  was  a  crooked,  worn-out  thing,  not  worth  picking 
up.  I  shot  him  because,  he  threatened  my  mother  and  my 
sister  if  they  refused  to  tell  where  I  was." 

After  this  display  Ned  Kelly  proceeded  to  get  to  business. 
From  the  bank  safe  and  drawers  were  taken  about  £2,150, 
the  gold  being  thrown  into  a  bag  which  the  local  school- 
master was  made  to  hold  open.  This  gentleman  then  wrote 
out  a  notice  at  Kelly's  dictation,  giving  the  school-children 
a  whole  holiday  in  honour  of  the  gang's  visit  to  the  town  ! 
In  the  same  braggadocio  spirit  the  outlaws,  after  quitting 
the  bank,  swaggered  about  the  town,  being  desirous  to 
emulate  the  exploit  of  Hall  and  Gilbert  at  Canowindra.  It 
was  during  this  parade  that  Hart  robbed  a  local  clergyman, 

—  194  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

the  Rev.  J.  B.  Gribble,  of  a  gold  watch,  which  Ned  Kelly 
insisted  on  Hart  returning. 

As  the  telegraph  wires  had  been  cut,  there  was  no  means 
of  communicating  with  Conargo  or  Narrandera,  the  nearest 
townships.  For  the  time,  therefore,  Jerilderie  was  com- 
pletely isolated.  It  remained  thus  at  the  mercy  of  the  gang 
until  the  afternoon  of  Wednesday,  the  fourth  day  from 
their  arrival.  Then,  with  their  booty  packed  on  a  police 
horse,  the  bushrangers  rode  off  into  the  hills,  each  one 
taking  a  different  route  to  render  pursuit  more  difficult. 
They  "  stuck  up  "  Mr.  Mackie's  station  at  Wannamurra  en 
route,  after  which  they  quickly  crossed  the  Murray  and 
got  back  to  their  Victorian  retreat.  The  principal  hiding- 
place  of  the  gang  was  revealed  by  Ned  Kelly  at  the  time  of 
his  trial.  It  was  an  old  mining  shaft,  about  twenty-five 
feet  deep,  at  the  bottom  of  which  was  a  long  drive  affording 
them  ample  room.  The  shaft  was  close  to  the  junction  of 
three  roads  leading  to  Chilton,  Yackandandah  and  Kiewa, 
and  some  ten  or  eleven  miles  from  Beech  worth. 

A  big  price  was  placed  on  the  heads  of  the  outlaws  after 
this  daring  robbery.  The  Governments  of  New  South 
Wales  and  Victoria  each  offered  a  reward  of  £3,000  for  their 
capture,  dead  or  alive,  the  banks  in  the  two  colonies  con- 
tributing another  £2,000.  The  blood-money  thus  totalled 
£8,000,  a  sum  large  enough,  one  would  think,  to  have  led 
to  betrayal.  But  the  Kellys,  Hart  and  Byrne,  still  lay 
safely  hidden,  being  loyally  served  by  their  womenfolk. 
Kate  Kelly,  Ned's  sister,  and  other  girls  more  or  less  con- 
nected with  the  family  supplied  them  with  food,  managing 
to  elude  observation  with  great  dexterity.  At  the  same  time 
that  a  reward  was  offered,  the  New  South  Wales  legislature 
re-introduced  the  Felons'  Apprehension  Act,  making  this 

—  195  ~ 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

statute  permanent  and  so  comprehensive  as  to  provide  that 
any  criminals  outlawed  in  a  neighbouring  colony  should  be 
outlawed  in  New  South  Wales.  Every  man's  hand  in  two 
colonies  was  now  to  be  against  the  Kelly  gang. 

In  the  hunt  after  the  outlaws  there  were  engaged  several 
prominent  police  officials.  From  Melbourne  came  Super- 
intendent Francis  Hare,  and  Assistant-Commissioner  C.  H. 
Nicholson  of  the  Victorian  force  ;  and  from  Queensland 
Sub-Inspector  Stanhope  O'Connor,  with  a  party  of  five 
black  trackers.  Also  in  the  field  at  various  times  were 
Superintendent  Sadleir,  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  north- 
eastern police  district,  and  Captain  Standish,  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Police.  It  was  an  unfortunate  thing  for  the  colony 
that  in  the  progress  of  operations  a  feeling  of  jealousy 
manifested  itself  between  certain  of  these  officers.  Through 
an  unwillingness  to  pull  together  amicably,  and  the  conse- 
quent miscarriage  of  well-matured  plans,  the  chase  of  the 
gang  was  undoubtedly  unduly  prolonged.  That  there 
was  gross  blundering  cannot  be  gainsaid,  and  there  was  no 
little  reason  for  the  strictures  that  were  passed  upon  the 
police. 

One  notable  chance  of  capture  that  was  missed  occurred 
early  in  the  hunt.  At  One  Mile  Creek,  near  to  the  town- 
ship of  Wangaratta,  a  woman  one  morning  heard  the  sound 
of  horses'  feet,  and  looking  out  of  her  hut  she  saw  four 
young  fellows  on  horses  that  were  evidently  blown.  These 
riders  were  identified  as  the  Kelly  gang,  hard  driven  by 
the  pursuit  of  a  police  party.  The  creek  was  swollen  by 
the  recent  rains  and  to  ordinary  folk  impassable,  but  Steve 
Hart,  who  knew  it  well,  led  his  companions  safely  across, 
and  they  were  last  seen  to  be  heading  for  the  ranges. 

This  occurrence  was  reported  to  the  inspector  at  Wan- 
—  196  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

garatta,  but  with  a  dilatoriness  that  called  for  a  stern  repri- 
mand from  the  Inquiry  subsequently  held,  he  lost  a  good 
deal  of  valuable  time  in  folio  whig  up  the  trail.  When  a 
party  of  troopers  at  last  set  out  they  found  a  horse,  which 
was  recognised  as  being  that  of  murdered  Sergeant  Ken- 
nedy, abandoned  in  a  swamp.  There  was  no  doubt  that 
they  were  on  the  right  scent,  but  the  supine  officer  ordered 
a  return  to  barracks.  The  next  day  the  search  was  again 
taken  up  ;  the  Kellys,  however,  were  by  this  time  well 
beyond  reach. 

Of  all  those  who  pressed  close  upon  their  heels,  the 
bushrangers  most  feared  O'Connor's  trackers.  These  blacks, 
Hero,  Jack,  Johnny,  Jimmy  and  Barney  by  name,  were 
men  of  exceptional  skill  who  had  been  in  the  Queensland 
Native  Mounted  Police  for  some  years.  By  their  quick- 
ness in  picking  up  and  following  a  trail,  the  trackers  kept 
the  gang  in  a  continual  state  of  suspense.  The  Kellys  more 
than  once  evinced  their  fear  of  these  sleuthhounds, — "little 
black  devils,"  they  called  them,  being  far  more  anxious  to 
shoot  them  than  the  troopers  whom  they  could  more  easily 
hoodwink.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  therefore,  except 
on  the  score  of  jealousy,  why  the  Victorian  Government 
should  have  been  pressed,  as  was  the  case,  to  dispense  with 
their  services  after  a  comparatively  short  trial. 

For  several  months  more  the  effective  aid  rendered  the 
band  by  their  sympathisers  paralysed  the  efforts  of  the 
police.  The  two  Kelly  girls,  Kate  and  her  married  sister, 
Mrs.  Skillian,  were  especially  to  the  fore  in  this  respect. 
Well  aware  that  their  movements  were  watched,  they  en- 
deavoured to  hamper  the  police  by  hoaxing  them  whenever 
possible.  On  one  occasion  Mrs.  Skillian  was  seen  to  leave 
the  Kelly  house  at  Greta  at  an  early  hour  in  the  morning, 

—  197  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

and  to  ride  off  with  a  bulky  package  on  her  saddle.  With 
all  promptitude  the  troopers  followed  her  stealthily  into  the 
Warby  ranges,  whither  it  was  supposed  she  was  conveying 
provisions  to  the  outlaws.  After  a  toilsome  climb  up  a  hill 
slope  they  were  rewarded  by  seeing  Mrs.  Skillian  seated  on 
a  log,  derisively  laughing  at  them.  The  bundle  in  her  saddle 
proved  to  be  nothing  more  than  an  old  tablecloth. 

But  every  camp  has  its  possible  traitor,  and  in  the  case  of 
the  Kellys,  the  possibility  became  a  certainty.  One  Aaron 
Sherritt,  a  confederate  of  the  bushrangers  and  the  more 
closely  allied  by  reason  of  his  attachment  to  Byrne's  sister, 
was  won  over  to  the  police  side.  By  the  help  of  this  "  out- 
rageous scoundrel,"  as  Hare  termed  him,  the  Superintendent 
shadowed  several  known  allies  of  the  gang,  and  came  very 
near  to  surprising  his  quarry.  Among  others,  Mrs.  Byrne's 
house,  a  solitary  building  in  the  hills,  was  kept  under  close 
observation,  but  a  little  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the 
troopers  revealed  their  proximity,  and  Hare  had  the  mortifi- 
cation to  see  the  old  lady  one  day  walk  right  into  the  police 
camp. 

Of  these  days  of  toilsome  plodding  through  the  bush, 
of  long  journeys,  and  wakeful  cold  nights,  during  which  they 
frequently  lay  out  in  the  open  without  fires,  Superintendent 
Hare  writes  feelingly.  He  gives  the  troopers  under  his 
command  high  praise  for  their  pluck  and  endurance. 
Every  man  of  them,  he  says,  was  "  keen  as  mustard  "  to 
go  for  the  Kellys,  and  ready  at  any  moment,  night  or  day, 
to  up  saddle  and  ride  off  in  pursuit.  As  an  instance  of  the 
personal  bravery  of  the  men,  in  striking  contradiction  to 
the  charges  of  cowardice  levelled  at  the  force  by  outside 
critics,  he  cites  the  following. 

Information,  apparently  from  a  reliable  source,  had  been 
—  198  — 


BUSHRANGING   DAYS 

received  to  the  effect  that  the  gang  were  lying  hidden  in 
a  haystack  near  a  certain  house.  The  troopers  surrounded 
the  place,  and  when  a  large  hole  in  the  haystack  was 
discovered,  the  Superintendent  called  for  a  volunteer  to 
crawl  inside.  There  was  a  chorus  of  "  Let  me  go,  sir  !  " 
Each  of  the  party  wanted  the  honour.  In  the  end  Trooper 
Johnson  was  commissioned  to  undertake  the  task  and, 
revolver  in  hand,  he  disappeared  in  the  aperture.  He  came 
out  a  minute  or  two  later,  saying  that  he  heard  a  noise  inside, 
and  that  they  had  better  keep  "  a  sharp  look-out  all  round." 
"  I  started  him  back,"  says  Hare,  "  and  told  him  to  send 
the  fellows  out.  He  had  hardly  been  away  more  than  a 
few  seconds  when  he  came  out  again  in  a  great  hurry.  "  Lor, 
sir,"  he  said,  "  there's  an  old  sow  in  there  with  a  lot  of  young 
ones,  and  she  did  go  for  me  !  " 

It  was  a  ludicrous  ending  to  the  episode,  but  one  can 
pay  a  just  tribute  of  praise  to  the  trooper  who  went  in  not 
knowing  what  was  before  him,  but  fully  expecting  to  meet 
four  armed  and  desperate  outlaws. 

That  Aaron  Sherritt  ultimately  would  have  given  the 
Kellys  into  the  hands  of  the  police  is  possible,  but  all  chance 
of  this  was  destroyed  by  the  sudden  murder  of  the  spy  in 
June  of  1880.  Since  the  contretemps  at  Mrs.  Byrne's  hut 
Sherritt  had  incurred  the  suspicion  of  the  gang.  His  rela- 
tions with  Byrne's  sister  were  broken  off  abruptly,  and  he 
felt  that  the  shadow  of  death  was  over  him.  This  foreknow- 
ledge of  doom  was  soon  to  be  realised.  Sherritt  was  shot 
one  night  at  the  door  of  his  house  at  Beechworth  by  Byrne, 
who  with  Dan  Kelly  had  boldly  ventured  out  from  his  lair. 

In  this  desire  for  revenge,  the  outlaws  threw  discretion 
to  the  winds.  Their  whereabouts  were  now  proclaimed. 
Soon  after  their  departure  the  intelligence  was  flashed  along 

—  199  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  wires  from  Benalla  to  Melbourne,  and  instant  pre- 
parations were  made  to  corner  the  band.  Sub-Inspector 
O'Connor,  who  had  retired  from  the  search  by  order,  was  now 
commanded  to  proceed  to  the  scene  of  the  outrage  with  his 
black  trackers,  while  Superintendent  Hare  (then  in  Mel- 
bourne) and  other  officers  lost  no  time  in  following  suit. 
In  the  meantime,  Ned  Kelly  and  Hart  had  taken  steps  to 
check  pursuit  by  tearing  up  the  railway  line  some  distance 
from  Glenrowan  station,  selecting  a  part  where  the  track 
ran  over  a  high  embankment.  The  object  was  to  derail  any 
special  train  that  the  authorities  might  send  up  towards 
Beech  worth. 

The  railway  gangers  commandeered  at  point  of  pistol 
to  perform  this  devilish  work  were  afterwards  kept  prisoners 
at  the  station-master's  house  at  Glenrowan,  where  many 
others  were  detained.  When  Byrne  and  Dan  Kelly  joined 
their  companions,  having  ridden  over  from  Beechworth,  all 
the  prisoners  were  removed  to  the  hotel.  Among  them  was 
the  one  constable  that  the  little  township  possessed.  To 
some  extent  every  one  was  free  to  move  about  the  place 
between  the  hotel  and  the  station,  but  clear  warning  was 
given  that  any  attempt  at  escape  would  be  punished  by 
immediate  death. 

It  was  on  a  Saturday  night  that  Sherritt  had  been  killed. 
The  next  day,  Sunday,  was  given  up  to  preparing  for  the 
stand  against  the  police  which  must  inevitably  come.  All 
had  been  carefully  arranged,  Glenrowan  having  been  chosen 
as  the  most  suitable  spot  for  their  purpose.  The  only  flaw 
in  the  bushrangers'  scheme  was  the  escape  of  one  individual 
from  the  company  under  surveillance,  and  the  consequent 
warning  of  the  police.  The  hero  of  this  incident  was  Mr. 
Curnow,  the  school-master  at  Glenrowan.  He  had  gained 

—  200  — 


5BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

Ned  Kelly's  confidence  sufficiently  to  obtain  permission 
to  remove  his  family  to  his  own  home  in  the  evening.  This 
achieved,  he  set  about  his  purpose  of  stopping  the  special 
train  which  was  then  on  its  way  up  the  line.  At  great  risk 
he  took  a  candle,  a  red  scarf  and  some  matches,  and  ran 
down  the  railway  track  in  the  darkness  to  display  his  impro- 
vised danger  signal.  His  efforts  met  with  success.  The 
train  came  to  a  standstill  before  the  embankment  was 
reached,  and  the  wondering  police  officers,  with  Superin- 
tendent Hare  at  their  head,  jumped  out  to  learn  to  their 
surprise  that  the  outlaws  were  at  Glenrowan  instead  of 
Beechworth. 

On  the  way  up  to  the  hotel  the  police  were  met  by  the 
town  constable,  Bracken,  who  had  given  his  guards  the 
slip.  He,  too,  had  some  useful  information  to  impart,  and 
at  a  run  the  whole  party  dashed  up  to  the  hotel.  The  place 
was  in  darkness  as  they  approached,  but  was  not  deserted. 
A  volley  blazed  out  from  the  verandah,  one  of  the  shots 
striking  Superintendent  Hare  in  the  wrist  and  disabling 
him.  The  fire  was  returned,  though  necessarily  somewhat  at 
random,  but  with  what  effect  could  not  be  ascertained.  Ned 
Kelly's  voice,  however,  was  heard  above  the  din,  taunting 
the  police  and  bidding  them  "  come  on." 

The  attack  of  the  police  was  now  checked  by  the  know- 
ledge that  a  number  of  non-combatants,  including  women 
and  children,  were  in  the  building.  Superintendent  Sadleir, 
who  arrived  by  train  with  a  reinforcement  of  troopers  from 
Benalla,  meanwhile  assumed  command  in  the  absence  of 
Superintendent  Hare,  the  latter's  wound  proving  to  be  more 
serious  than  was  at  first  thought  to  be  the  case.  The  order 
to  cease  firing  had  been  given  before  Mr.  Hare  left  the  scene, 
but  not  before  some  of  the  unfortunate  people  penned  in 

—  201  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  hotel  had  suffered.  One  or  two  were  children,  and  one 
Mr.  Reardon,  a  railway  man  whom  Ned  Kelly  had  compelled 
to  help  in  destroying  the  line.  This  indiscriminate  firing 
aroused  intense  indignation  after  the  affair  was  over,  the 
interval  between  Mr.  Hare's  departure  and  Mr.  Sadleir's 
advent  having  left  the  attackers  without  a  recognised  com- 
mander. 

Immediately  the  Superintendent  realised  the  situation 
he  called  on  the  non-combatants  in  the  hotel  to  come  out, 
and  several  took  advantage  of  the  lull  to  escape.  The  Kellys, 
to  do  them  justice,  had  no  desire  to  keep  the  prisoners  or  hi 
any  way  profit  by  their  presence  there.  What  fault  there 
was  lay  with  those  of  the  police  who  in  the  excitement  of 
the  moment  lost  their  heads,  and  failed  to  discriminate 
between  the  innocent  and  the  guilty. 

One  of  the  last  volleys  poured  into  the  building  shot  Joe 
Byrne,  just  after  the  outlaw  had  come  within  an  ace  of 
hitting  Sergeant  O'Dwyer.  A  little  while  earlier  Ned  Kelly 
had  left  the  house  by  the  rear  for  some  unknown  reason,  and 
he  was  seen  returning  through  the  trees.  Sergeant  Steele, 
who  was  posted  near  at  hand  at  first  thought  that  he  was 
a  blackfellow  well  known  to  the  district,  what  was  appar- 
ently a  blanket  over  the  man's  shoulders,  and  some  black 
strappings  on  his  trousers,  giving  him  a  curious  effect.  As 
the  bushranger  came  nearer  he  flung  up  this  covering,  which 
was  actually  a  cape,  and  opened  fire  on  the  police  with  a 
revolver.  The  fusillade  was  returned,  but  to  the  troopers' 
amazement,  Kelly  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed  life.  Bullet 
after  bullet  struck  him  without  bringing  him  down.  This 
extraordinary  situation  lasted  fully  twenty  minutes,  the 
grotesque  figure  of  the  outlaw  standing  in  the  open  defying 
every  gun  that  was  concentrated  upon  him.  Then  the  secret 

—  202  — 


BUSHRANGING  DAYS 

of  his  immunity  was  understood.  He  was  protected  by  a 
casing  of  armour,  an  iron  helmet  guarding  his  head  and 
thick  plates  covering  breast,  sides  and  back.1 

Sergeant  Steele  seized  his  opportunity  and  made  a  dash 
for  Kelly,  firing  low  to  wound  him  in  the  legs.  In  this  he 
was  successful.  Dropping  to  the  ground  the  outlaw  lay  with 
his  helmet  fallen  off,  and  was  quickly  disarmed.  He  was 
divested  of  his  armour,  and  carried  to  the  railway  station 
to  be  medically  attended  prior  to  his  removal  to  Benalla. 

Meanwhile,  the  hotel  having  been  emptied  of  all  its 
occupants  save  Dan  Kelly  and  Hart,  the  attack  was  renewed. 
A  proposal  to  carry  the  place  by  storm  was  negatived,  in 
the  fear  that  there  would  be  too  much  loss  of  life.  Super- 
intendent Sadleir  now  decided  to  wire  for  a  field-piece  from 
Melbourne  and  in  response  a  12-pounder  Armstrong  gun 
was  actually  despatched  ;  but  before  it  came,  the  fight  was 
brought  to  a  finish.  A  police  trooper  volunteered  to  fire 
the  building.  This  was  effectually  done,  and  when  the  hotel 
was  entered  the  bodies  of  Dan  Kelly  and  Steve  Hart  were 
found  side  by  side,  charred  beyond  recognition.  It  was 
known  that  they  had  been  shot  before  the  fire  reached  them, 
but  whether  by  the  police  or  by  their  own  hands  was  not 
evident.  The  body  of  Byrne  was  removed  from  an  out- 
building where  it  had  been  placed,  being  subsequently  handed 
over  to  his  friends  for  burial. 

With  Ned  Kelly's  execution  which  followed  upon  his 
trial  at  Melbourne  in  November,  the  curtain  fell  upon  the 
grim  tragedy.  Several  prosecutions  of  persons  implicated 

1  The  armour  worn  by  Ned  Kelly,  and  similarly  by  the  three  other 
bushrangers,  was  made  of  J  inch  iron  plates.  The  headpieces  were  quilted 
inside,  this  having  been  done,  presumably,  by  one  or  other  of  the  Kellys' 
womenfolk.  Altogether  each  suit  of  mail  must  have  weighed  close  on  100 
Ibs. 

—  203  — 


in  the  gang's  doings  were  undertaken,  but  the  authorities 
did  not  press  their  investigations  very  far  home.  The  des- 
truction of  the  outlaws  had  put  an  end  to  bushranging  in 
Victoria,  for  no  other  outbreak  was  to  be  feared.  What 
remained  was  to  count  the  cost,  and  this,  it  proved,  was  no 
light  matter.  The  sum  expended  hi  the  hunting  down  of 
the  gang  amounted  to  nearly  £50,000. 

In  1881  a  Royal  Commission  sat  to  inquire  into  the  con- 
duct of  the  police  hunt  after  the  Kellys,  and  to  consider  the 
need  for  reforms  in  the  administration.  It  was  an  exhaus- 
tive and  searching  inquiry,  and  its  result  was  to  exonerate 
several  officers  against  whom  charges  of  incompetency  had 
been  levelled.  At  the  same  time  it  awarded  blame  to  those 
officials  whom  it  considered  responsible  for  the  bungling 
that  had  been  so  apparent  from  the  first.  By  its  recom- 
mendation Captain  Standish,  the  Commissioner,  Assistant- 
Commissioner  Nicholson,  and  Superintendent  Hare  were 
retired  upon  superannuation  allowances.  Certain  other 
officers  of  high  rank  were  censured  for  their  want  of  esprit 
de  corps,  and  drastic  changes  were  made  to  ensure  a  better 
condition  of  things  in  the  future. 

The  Commission  was  not  wholly  destructive,  however. 
It  made  many  wise  recommendations  for  the  more  efficient 
policing  of  the  districts  affected  by  the  recent  outbreak. 
Among  other  things  it  urged  the  immediate  re-equipment 
of  the  troopers  with  better  weapons  and  better  horses  than 
had  been  the  case  hitherto.  These  improvements  were  car- 
ried into  effect  in  due  course,  and  in  time,  as  we  shall  see 
when  considering  the  Victorian  Mounted  Police  in  more 
detail,  the  force  was  brought  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  perfection. 


—  204 


CHAPTER   XII 

POLICE    WORK  IN   NEW   SOUTH   WALES 

The  Act  of  1862 — Initial  difficulties — Changes  in  uniform  and  equip- 
ment— Captain  M'Lerie,  Inspector-General — Bushranging  suppressed 
— Mr.  Edmund  Fosbery — The  "  Angel "  and  Thurston  case — 
Superintendent  Day — An  exciting  encounter — The  Darling  River  mys- 
tery— Ex-Superintendent  Brennan — "Waterloo  Tom" — Aboriginal 
murderers — A  long  chase — Mr.  Thomas  Garvin — Mr.  Day,  Inspector- 
General — Mounted  Police  of  to-day — Necessary  qualifications — 
An  "  Out-back  "  story — Extraneous  duties — Equipment  and  pay. 

THE  evolution  of  the  New  South  Wales  police  force 
from  the  military  guard  of  the  old  convict  days 
has  been  traced  in  the  foregoing  pages.  In  1862  the  Police 
Act  (25  Victoria,  No.  16)  brought  about  a  revolution  in 
methods,  and  it  is  from  this  date  that  the  story  of  develop- 
ment may  be  taken  up.  By  the  new  Act,  as  has  been 
already  noted,  the  previous  laws  relating  to  the  police 
force  of  the  colony  were  consolidated  and  amended.  The 
Bench  Constables,1  the  Sydney  Police  and  the  Mounted 
Patrols  now  ceased  to  exist  as  separate  bodies :  they 
became  merged  in  the  general  organisation.  Centralisa- 
tion was  aimed  at  as  the  keynote  of  efficiency.  To  this 
end  the  colony  was  split  up  into  divisions,  each  of  which 
was  controlled  by  a  Superintendent.  Under  this  officer 

1  These  were  constables  controlled  by  the  Bench  of  Magistrates,  as 
at  Goulburn  in  1859,  where  Chief  Constable  McAlister  was  in  charge. 
At  some  towns  these  were  supplemented  by  night  watchmen  who  peram- 
bulated the  streets  and  proclaimed  hourly  in  stentorian  tones  :  "  All's 
well  !  " 

—  205  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

were  inspectors  and  sub-inspectors,  with  the  lesser  ranks 
of  senior-sergeants,  sergeants,  senior-constables,  constables 
and  supernumeraries.  In  all,  foot  and  mounted,  the  force 
totalled  about  800  men. 

Sir  Charles  Cowper,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  who  estab- 
lished this  new  system,  found  his  scheme  subjected  to  a 
severe  test  during  the  troublous  years  of  the  great  bush- 
ranging  outbreak.  Owing  to  the  low  strength  of  the  force 
and  its  wide  distribution,  and  owing  also  to  the  poverty  of 
its  equipment,  many  weak  points  were  exposed.  Public 
criticism  was  ever  ready  to  denounce  the  ineffectiveness 
of  the  police  to  deal  with  lawlessness  when  offenders  con- 
tinued to  remain  at  large  uncaptured,  but  such  criticism 
was  often  hasty  and  ill-considered.  There  was  much  that 
might  have  been,  and  no  doubt  was,  urged  in  defence.  One 
especial  difficulty  experienced  was  in  recruiting  for  the  force. 
Natives  of  the  colony  were  reluctant  to  join  the  police, 
who  were  not  popular,  while  there  was  the  compelling 
attraction  of  the  rapidly  expanding  goldfields.  The  In- 
spector-General, Captain  M'Lerie,  was  often  obliged  to 
fall  back  upon  ex-sailors  from  the  coast  towns,  and  others 
who  were  hardly  more  suitable  for  the  task  in  hand.  For 
the  mounted  men,  too,  there  were  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  procuring  horses  that  were  equal  to  the  strain  imposed 
upon  them  by  arduous  bush  work. 

The  changes  in  uniform  and  equipment  made  in  1862 
must  be  noted.  A  trooper's  outfit  now  comprised  a  blue 
cloth  jumper,  grey  cloth  riding  pants,  blue  cloth  overalls, 
a  waterproof  cape  and  cloak  of  military  pattern,  and  Napo- 
leon boots.  For  bush  service,  as  before,  the  mounted 
man's  dress  was  less  precise.  Red  tape,  fortunately,  did 
not  prescribe  any  hard  and  fast  regulations  in  this  respect. 

—  206  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

One  new  feature  that  was  universal,  however,  was  the  adop- 
tion of  leather  leggings ;  before  their  introduction  the 
trooper  was  wont  to  strap  his  trousers  tight  with  basil. 

In  the  matter  of  arms  we  find  the  old  muzzle-loading 
carbine  yielding  to  the  Terry  rifle,  while  the  cumbrous 
and  often  ineffective  horse-pistol,  with  its  percussion  cap, 
was  replaced  by  the  Colt  revolver.  Swords  were  still  carried 
for  parade  purposes  and  other  special  occasions. 

In  his  choice  of  the  head  of  the  re-organised  Police 
Force  the  Colonial  Secretary  was  exceptionally  fortunate. 
Captain  John  M'Lerie  was  an  English  Army  officer  who 
had  risen  from  the  ranks  and  proved  himself  a  capable 
disciplinarian.  He  had  come  out  to  Australia  in  1844, 
the  following  year  seeing  him  engaged  in  the  Maori  war  in 
New  Zealand.  In  1847  he  left  the  Army  to  become  Pay- 
master and  Adjutant  of  the  Mounted  Patrol,  with  head- 
quarters in  Sydney.  Thereafter  his  appointments  were 
Principal  Gaoler  at  Darlinghurst,  Police  Magistrate,  Super- 
intendent of  Police,  and  finally  Inspector-  General.  For  his 
lieutenant  Captain  M'Lerie  had  Mr.  Edmund  Fosbery, 
who  held  the  rank  of  Superintendent  and  Deputy  Inspector- 
General.  This  officer  did  much  towards  increasing  the 
efficiency  of  the  force,  and  when  in  1874  his  chief  died  he 
succeeded  naturally  to  the  post. 

An  important  feature  of  the  new  system  was  the  estab- 
lishment of  mounted  patrols  which  passed  to  and  fro  in  the 
Colony  at  irregular  intervals.  No  station  owner  could  say 
when  he  might  not  be  visited  by  one  of  these  police  parties, 
and  this  uncertainty  did  much  to  check  the  harbouring  of 
criminals.  On  their  way  through  the  bush,  too,  the  troopers 
took  count  of  every  one  they  met  :  suspicious  characters 
were  questioned  and,  if  not  found  satisfactory,  were  sub- 

—  207  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

jected  to  closer  examination.  As  the  years  went  on  and 
the  sphere  of  police  work  widened,  Sir  Charles  Cowper's 
scheme  came  successfully  through  its  ordeal.  The  force 
grew  not  only  in  numbers  but  in  usefulness.  The  mounted 
constable  in  the  country  districts  made  himself  indispen- 
sable to  both  old  and  new  settlers  ;  he  was  guide  and  friend, 
in  addition  to  being  guardian  of  the  peace,  and  his  abilities 
in  this  pioneer  work  are  deserving  of  full  recognition. 

Before  Captain  M'Lerie's  death  bushranging  had  been 
suppressed  in  New  South  Wales.  Such  cases  as  did  occur 
after  the  reign  of  the  Clarkes  and  "  Thunderbolt  "  were 
sporadic  and  of  brief  duration.  Interest  in  this  peculiar 
phase  of  crime  was  diverted  to  the  neighbouring  colony  of 
Victoria,  where  the  notorious  Kellys  were  keeping  Captain 
Standish's  troopers  busy.  The  depredations  of  cattle- 
duffers  and  horse-planters,  too,  were  considerably  checked. 
The  mounted  police  were  prompt  in  running  down  any 
gangs  that  engaged  in  this  nefarious  traffic,  and  the  severe 
sentences  imposed  on  such  offenders  as  were  brought  to 
justice  had  a  salutary  effect. 

Under  the  rule  of  Mr.  (now  the  Hon.)  Edmund  Fosbery 
the  New  South  Wales  Police  gained  much  in  prestige.  The 
new  Inspector-General  was  a  man  of  considerable  adminis- 
trative ability.  The  policing  of  outlying  districts  was 
taken  in  hand  thoroughly,  and  people  quickly  recognised 
that  a  new  order  of  things  had  set  in.  What  was  of  no  less 
importance,  the  status  of  a  mounted  constable  greatly 
improved.  The  force  had  survived  the  searching  criticism 
to  which  it  was  subjected  in  former  years  ;  it  had  proved 
itself  under  the  most  severe  tests.  To  become  the  wearer 
of  the  blue  uniform  was  no  longer  to  lose  caste.  There  was 
now  no  lack  of  applicants,  and  with  the  opportunity  for 

—  208  — 


THE    HON.     EDMUND    FOSBERY,     C.M.G.,     INSPECTOR-GENERAL    OF    POLICE,     N.S.W. 

1874-1903. 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

selection  the  Inspector-General  could  report  that  the  type  of 
man  who  joined  was  better  all  round  than  it  had  ever  been. 

In  the  calendar  of  crime  of  this  period  one  finds  nothing 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  great  escort  robbery,  but  several 
minor  affairs  are  worth  chronicling  for  various  reasons. 
Take  the  case  of  the  "  Angel,"  a  very  promising  desperado. 
The  story  of  his  bringing  to  book  has  a  dramatic  touch. 
It  is  of  particular  interest,  too,  inasmuch  as  it  concerns 
an  official  high  up  in  the  police  service. 

The  "  Angel,"  to  those  who  were  interested  in  him  pro- 
fessionally, was  Thomas  Hobson,  expert  cattle  thief,  aged 
twenty-seven.  Early  in  1885  he  was  arrested  by  Senior- 
Sergeant  (afterwards  Sub-Inspector)  Boyd  at  Coonamble, 
which  is  on  the  Castlereagh  River,  in  northern  New 
South  Wales.  After  being  convicted  and  sentenced  to  a 
term  of  penal  servitude  he  was  transferred  to  Bathurst. 
This  stronghold  impressed  the  "  Angel "  unfavourably 
when  he  cast  about  for  means  to  escape,  and  he  set  his  wits 
to  work.  In  the  prison,  as  it  happened,  was  one  William 
White,  alias  Thurston,  a  young  man  of  his  acquaintance 
whose  branch  of  crime  was  forgery.  Thurston  was  serving 
a  term  of  seven  years.  To  this  man  the  "  Angel  "  repre- 
sented that  if  they  could  get  back  to  Coonamble  on  some 
pretext  they  might  break  gaol  easily.  The  lock-up  there 
was  none  too  strong.  In  accordance  with  this  plan  he 
made  out  a  petition  in  which  he  urged  that  Thurston  was 
an  invaluable  witness  in  his  defence,  and  that  new  evidence 
was  forthcoming  that  would  clear  him  of  the  charge  of 
cattle-stealing  on  which  he  was  convicted. 

The  plausible  manner  in  which  the  petition  was  worded 
persuaded  the  authorities  that  the  case  ought  to  be  reopened. 
In  due  course  a  new  trial  was  ordered  and  the  two  men  were 

—  209  —  P 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

sent  to  Coonamble.  The  lock-up  had  only  two  or  three  cells. 
As  the"  Angel  "  had  anticipated,  he  and  Thurston  were 
placed  together.  This  simplified  matters  greatly.  Their 
plans  were  carefully  laid  and  on  the  morning"  after  their 
arrival  the  warder  who  entered  the  cell  was  knocked  down 
and  stunned.  His  revolver  was  seized  by  the  "  Angel,"  who 
waited  for  the  coming  of  the  gaoler,  Constable  Mitchell. 
This  officer  no  sooner  showed  his  face  at  the  door  than  he 
was  shot  dead,  his  body  being  dragged  in  and  laid  along- 
side that  of  the  unconscious  warder.  Then  the  two, 
prisoners  no  longer,  locked  the  cell  door  behind  them,  armed 
themselves  with  guns  and  revolvers,  and  took  to  the  high  road. 

The  next  that  was  heard  of  the  "  Angel  "  and  his  partner 
was  that  they  were  engaged  in  bushranging  on  a  small  scale 
in  the  Warrumbool  and  Wollar  Mountains.  Some  stores 
and  isolated  settlers'  houses  were  reported  to  have  been 
"  stuck  up."  News  of  this  came  to  Gulgong,  and  a  police 
party  of  three — Senior-Sergeant  (afterwards  Inspector) 
Burns,  Constable  McKinley  and  Constable  Day — went  in 
pursuit  of  the  fugitives.  It  was  now  April,  about  four 
weeks  after  the  escape  from  Coonamble. 

In  the  hill  country  the  mounted  police  received  special 
information  which  led  them  to  believe  that  their  quest 
would  soon  be  ended.  Two  men,  answering  to  the  des- 
cription of  the  "  Angel  "  and  Thurston,  had  visited  the  store 
of  a  Mr.  Charles  Stuart,  at  Green  Gate,  near  Mudgee.  There 
they  had  purchased  a  few  goods,  paying  for  them  with  a 
pound  note.  By  this  means,  it  was  surmised,  they  had 
learned  where  the  old  man  kept  his  money,  as  he  had  had  to 
go  below  to  the  cellar  for  the  change.  It  was  a  natural 
assumption  that  the  two  would  return  ere  long  to  rob 
the  store,  and  the  police  prepared  to  lie  in  wait  for  them. 

—  210  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

Before  nightfall  Sergeant  Burns  and  McKinley  concealed 
themselves  in  a  room  at  the  back,  a  small  window  giving 
them  a  view  of  the  store  front.  Constable  Day's  post  was 
behind  the  counter  of  the  store,  where  he  crouched,  revolver 
in  hand,  to  await  events. 

Three  hours  passed  without  any  cause  for  alarm,  and 
then  the  watchers  heard  the  sound  of  horses'  feet  clattering 
over  a  small  wooden  bridge  that  spanned  the  river  close 
by.  The  riders  went  by  the  store  without  drawing  rein. 
They  had  a  call  to  make  before  the  raid  actually  began. 
Old  Mr.  Stuart  was  to  be  routed  out  of  bed  and  forced  to 
accompany  them,  half-dressed,  to  unfasten  his  money- 
bags. Their  returning  footsteps  told  the  police  that  the 
moment  was  at  hand.  Then  the  three  entered,  the  store- 
keeper holding  a  lighted  candle  in  his  hand,  and  the  door 
closed  to  behind  them. 

Immediately  Burns'  sharp  summons  rang  out :  "  Hands 
up  !  You'd  better  surrender  quietly  !  "  And  the  "  Angel  " 
and  Thurston  found  themselves  looking  into  the  barrel 
of  the  sergeant's  rifle,  levelled  at  them  through  the  little 
window.  With  an  oath  the  former  turned  on  the  old  store- 
keeper, believing  that  he  had  led  them  into  a  trap,  and  shot 
him  through  the  head.  At  the  same  moment  Burns  fired 
and  Thurston  dropped  dead  to  the  floor. 

Day  now  jumped  up  from  his  hiding-place  to  face  the 
"  Angel."  It  was  close  quarters,  only  a  few  feet  separating 
the  two.  The  candle,  flickering  on  the  floor,  gave  little  light. 
The  trooper  pulled  first,  his  shot  hitting  the  other  in  the 
shoulder.  The  "  Angel's  "  bullet  went  wide,  for  as  he  fired 
he  half  fell.  Recovering  himself  he  made  a  dash  for  the 
door,  but  Thurston's  body  had  rolled  against  it,  blocking 
the  way.  Then  Day  leapt  over  the  counter  to  make  a 

—  211  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

plucky  attempt  to  capture  his  man,  and  in  so  doing  had 
the  narrowest  shave  that  he  ever  experienced  in  his  career. 
The  "  Angel  "  turned  in  a  flash  and  fired  again,  but  only 
once  more  to  miss.  Darkness  and  the  excitement  of  the 
moment  combined  to  favour  the  trooper's  escape. 

A  second  shot  from  Day's  revolver  found  its  mark,  but 
wounded  though  he  was  the  "  Angel  "  succeeded  in  breaking 
down  the  door  and  gaining  the  open.  He  did  not  go  far, 
however.  The  constable,  who  followed,  saw  him  fall  to  the 
ground,  and  his  capture  was  effected  without  any  further 
resistance.  That  was  the  end  of  the  "  Angel."  He  cheated 
the  gallows  by  dying  the  next  day  from  the  wounds  he  had 
received.  His  captor,  Constable  Day,  had  the  satisfaction 
of  being  warmly  commended  for  his  gallantry  and  of  gaining 
his  first  step  to  promotion.  Thereafter  the  young  officer's 
rise  through  the  various  grades  was  rapid  ;  at  the  present 
time  he  holds  the  supreme  rank  of  Inspector-General. 
Sergeant  Burns,  for  his  share  in  this  notable  exploit,  was 
made  a  sub-inspector. 

A  case  that  puzzled  the  police  for  some  time  was  that 
of  Tommy  Moore,  hawker  and  murderer.  If  you  were  to 
ask  Mr.  Day  about  it  he  would  probably  tell  you  that  it 
was  certainly  one  of  the  hardest  nuts  he  had  to  crack. 
The  affair  was  wrapped  in  mystery  from  the  outset.  There 
were  no  clues  to  work  upon  for  some  weeks,  and  even  then 
such  discovery  as  was  made  seemed  to  offer  little  towards 
elucidation.  The  attention  of  the  police  was  first  engaged 
by  a  report  that  six  mutilated  bodies  had  been  found  in  the 
bush  in  the  district  of  the  Darling  River.  Owing  to  several 
reasons  these  were  unrecognisable,  and  nothing  was  found  in 
the  vicinity  to  point  to  the  perpetrator  of  these  terrible  deeds. 

By  special  instructions  from  headquarters,  Day  went  out 
—  212  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

to  see  what  he  could  do  to  unravel  the  mystery.  He  visited 
Cootamundra,  Yarrabool,  Forbes  and  other  places  where 
the  ghastly  finds  had  been  made,  but  for  some  time  had  to 
own  himself  baffled.  Then  he  came  upon  the  traces  of  a 
camp  in  the  bush  by  the  river.  Inquiry  revealed  to  him 
that  the  crew  of  a  small  steamer  that  plied  up  and  down  the 
Darling  had  seen  a  man — "  a  small  man  " — punting  across 
while  the  water  was  low.  With  this  slender  information  to 
work  upon  Day  searched  the  river  banks  diligently,  and 
was  at  last  rewarded  by  finding  a  pair  of  sculls  hidden  in  a 
clump  of  reeds.  Later  on  he  discovered  a  lightly-built  boat 
filled  with  sand  and  sunk  in  the  stream.  He  felt  now  that 
he  was  on  the  right  track. 

By  long  and  careful  investigation  the  officer  traced  the 
little  boat  to  Adelaide,  where  he  learned  that  it  had  been 
sold  to  a  man  named  Edward  Smith,  who  made  a  living  by 
catching  and  selling  fish  to  the  shearers  on  the  Darling 
stations.  In  this  way  a  careful  hawker  could  accumulate 
a  fair-sized  cheque.  The  man  in  question  answered  to 
the  description  of  the  "  small  man  "  passed  on  the  river. 
Furthermore,  he  had  been  seen  in  the  company  of  another 
hawker,  a  general  peddler,  and  Day  now  set  himself  to 
follow  this  man.  It  was  a  long  and  difficult  hunt,  but  in  the 
end  successful.  Tommy  Moore  was  properly  taken  aback 
when  he  was  arrested  in  the  market-place  of  Bourke,  where 
he  was  laying  in  a  fresh  outfit  of  goods.  There  was  no 
mistake  made,  though  Moore  swore  stoutly  to  his  innocence. 
A  cheque  stolen  from  the  murdered  vendor  of  fish,  with 
other  damning  pieces  of  evidence,  were  traced  to  him,  and 
enough  was  discovered  to  assure  the  police  that  all  of  the 
six  dead  men  had  met  their  fate  at  his  hands.  So  after  due 
trial  Moore  was  found  guilty  and  was  hanged. 

—  213  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Ex-Superintendent  Martin  Brennan,  to  whom  reference 
has  been  made  already,  is  another  noted  thief -catcher  who 
has  figured  in  some  memorable  affairs.  An  Irishman,  like  so 
many  of  the  Mounted  Police,  he  joined  the  service  as  far 
back  as  1859,  when  he  became  a  member  of  the  Southern 
Patrol  under  Captain  Zouch.  He  was  the  first  non-military 
man  to  be  enrolled  in  the  patrol  police.  Brennan 's  earlier 
years  were  spent  in  gold  escort  duty  and  in  police  work  hi 
and  around  the  diggings,  but  opportunities  were  forthcoming 
for  him  to  display  his  abilities  in  hunting  down  criminals. 
In  1870,  while  he  was  at  the  Araluen  goldfields,  he  captured 
Duchief  (alias  Etienne),  one  of  the  three  armed  highwaymen 
who  murdered  Daniel  Grotty,  the  mail-carrier  of  Marengo. 
Two  years  later  he  was  in  charge  of  the  Queanbegan  district, 
and  here  occurred  a  somewhat  exciting  episode. 

A  notorious  character  named  Robinson,  who  was  popu- 
larly known  as  "  Waterloo  Tom,"  killed  a  poor  shepherd 
at  the  latter's  hut  on  the  Murrumbidgee.  Sergeant  Brennan 
(as  he  then  was)  set  off  with  a  trooper  to  arrest  the 
ruffian.  They  expected  trouble,  for  Tom  was  a  remarkably 
good  shot  and  was  not  likely  to  yield  without  a  fight.  And 
so  it  fell  out.  When  he  spied  the  police  on  his  trail  he 
threw  himself  on  his  back,  his  favourite  position  for  shoot- 
ing, and  emptied  the  contents  of  his  gun  at  his  pursuers. 
As  his  weapon  was  loaded  with  slug  shot,  and  the  range  was 
fairly  long,  not  much  damage  was  done.  The  troopers' 
horses  were  hit,  but  not  badly. 

Brennan  saw  that  the  other  would  have  to  reload,  and 
took  his  chance  of  capturing  his  man  before  this  was  accom- 
plished. It  was  just  a  chance  that  he  could  reach  him  in 
time.  Putting  spurs  to  his  horse  he  galloped  up,  threw 
himself  off,  and  got  his  hands  on  Tom  at  the  moment  that 

—  214  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

the  latter  was  putting  the  cap  on  his  gun.  This  weapon, 
by  the  way,  was  an  old-fashioned  type  and  of  the  extra- 
ordinary length  of  six  feet. 

"  Another  few  seconds,"  said  Waterloo  Tom  grimly, 
"  and  you'd  have  known  what  a  good  shot  I  am  !  " 

In  July,  1900,  the  Dubbo  district  of  New  South  Wales 
was  the  scene  of  some  atrocious  murders  committed  by 
aborigines.  There  were  four  natives  concerned,  three  men 
named  Jacky  Underwood,  Jimmy  and  Joe  Governor,  and 
a  girl,  Ethel  Governor.  At  Breelong  they  massacred  a 
selector's  entire  family,  after  which  they  appeared  at  Gul- 
gong,  Wollar,  and  other  places,  shooting  and  spearing 
several  people.  The  mounted  police  sent  in  search  of 
these  criminals  were  led  by  Superintendent  Thomas  Garvin, 
who  kept  up  a  hot  chase  for  some  twelve  weeks.  Two  of 
the  blacks,  the  Governors,  were  ex-police  trackers,  and 
thus  up  to  all  the  tactics  that  would  be  adopted  for  their 
capture. 

For  continuity  of  pursuit  this  man-hunt  equalled 
anything  that  had  been  done  in  the  criminal  history  of  the 
State.  By  throwing  out  advance  parties  on  the  right  and 
left  wings  (several  civilians,  smart  bushmen,  had  now  joined 
in  the  chase),  the  police  finally  drove  their  quarry  into  a 
corner.  Joe  Governor  was  caught  up  with  and  shot  dead 
at  the  end  of  October.  His  brother,  Jimmy,  was  captured 
at  Dingo  Creek,  on  the  Manning  River,  after  an  encounter  in 
which  he  was  wounded,  and  with  Jacky  Underwood  was 
subsequently  executed.  The  girl,  who  was  less  culpable, 
received  a  sentence  of  imprisonment. 

Superintendent  Garvin  three  years  later  relinquished 
the  command  of  the  Northern  District  to  take  up  the  duties 
of  Inspector-General,  having  been  appointed  to  that  office 

—  215  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

on  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Fosbery.1  That  he  has  proved 
himself  to  be  a  capable  chief  of  police  is  shown  by  the  present 
high  state  of  efficiency  in  the  service.  To-day  the  New 
South  Wales  troopers  are  among  the  smartest  in  the  Com- 
monwealth, while  the  organisation  of  the  force  leaves 
nothing  to  be  desired.  In  1909  Mr.  Garvin  was  created  a 
Companion  of  the  Imperial  Service  Order  by  his  late 
Majesty  King  Edward  VII. 

At  the  end  of  last  year  a  notable  change  in  the  adminis- 
tration took  place.  Mr.  Garvin  retired  from  the  force 
on  a  pension,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Ernest  Day,  who, 
although  a  junior  Superintendent,  had  been  acting  as 
Deputy  Inspector-General  for  some  time.  This  appointment 
has  afforded  universal  satisfaction,  for  the  new  chief  has 
given  ample  evidence  that  he  is  possessed  of  the  right 
qualifications  for  this  onerous  position. 

We  may  turn  now  to  consider  the  mounted  police  of 
the  State  as  they  are  at  the  present  time,  under  the  same 
Police  Act  of  1862  that  effected  their  establishment.  Ex- 
clusive ofthe  officers — superintendents,  inspectors,  and  sub- 
inspectors,  who  have  charge  of  both  mounted  and  foot  police 
— the  troopers  number  718.  Of  these  thirty-five  are  at  the 
depot  in  Sydney,  on  duty  at  the  Inspector-General's  office, 
acting  as  orderlies  to  his  Excellency  the  State  Governor,  or 
undergoing  a  course  of  instruction  ;  the  remainder  are  dis- 
tributed over  the  nine  country  districts  into  which  the 
State  is  divided.2  If  we  reckon  in  the  above-mentioned 


1  Mr.  Fosbery  on  leaving  the  service  in  December,  1903,  received  the 
distinction  of  C.M.G.  and  a  seat  in  the  Legislative  Council. 

2  The  distribution  of  the  force  is  as  follows,  the  headquarters  being 
printed  in  brackets :  Northern  (Armidale),  88 ;  Southern  (Goulburn), 
112;  Eastern  (dep6t  at  Bedfern,  Sydney),  90  ;  Western  (Bathurst), 
122  ;  Bourke  (Bourke),  54  ;  North-Eastern  (West  Maitland),  78  ;  North- 

—  2l6  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

officers  the  full  total  is  780.  To  these  must  be  added  sixty- 
six  native  trackers  who  are  employed  almost  exclusively 
with  the  mounted  men. 

The  metropolitan  force  is  a  foot  service,  and  comprises 
all  told  1,010;  the  country  force  is  a  mounted  and  foot 
service,  and  comprises  1,425,  being  an  excess  of  415  men 
over  the  metropolitan  district.  The  latter  has  104  police 
stations,  while  the  country  has  551. 

The  Police  Depot  was  formerly  at  Belmore  Barracks, 
Sydney,  but  has  been  transferred  to  new  quarters  at  Red- 
fern.  Here  are  commodious  buildings  covering  an  area  of 
nearly  four  acres,  with  drill  ground,  armoury,  stables  and 
manege.  On  being  drafted  here  recruits  for  the  mounted 
branch  commence  their  training  under  Superintendent  Sykes 
and  Inspector  J.  S.  Clarke,  the  latter,  who  formerly  served  in 
the  17th  Lancers,  being  well  qualified  to  act  as  drill-master 
and  riding-instructor.  For  the  mounted  police,  who  must  all 
be  picked  men,  the  standard  is  as  follows  :  Age,  from  21 
to  30;  height,  5  feet  8  inches;  weight,  11  stone;  chest 
measurement,  38  inches.  Every  candidate  has  to  pass  a 
severe  educational  test  in  dictation  and  arithmetic,  in 
addition  to  the  medical  examination,  and  it  is  indispensable 
that  he  should  be  able  to  swim. 

The  best  type  of  recruit  is,  of  course,  the  man  from 
the  country  districts,  who  is  generally  a  good  horseman 
and  possessed  of  special  knowledge  of  cattle  and  sheep. 
The  town-bred  policeman,  as  a  rule,  is  an  indifferent 
rider.  All,  however,  are  tried  after  the  initial  selection 
has  been  made,  and  their  certificates  are  placed  before 
the  Inspector-General.  Those  who  survive  this  stage 

Western  (Tamworth),  69  ;  South- Western  (Deniliquin),  64  ;  Murray 
(Albury),  61. 

—  217  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

then  pass  on  to  the  manege,  where  their  education  begins 
in  earnest.  The  course  of  military  equitation  which  is 
now  undergone  includes  "  physical,  sword,  revolver,  and 
carbine  exercise,  on  foot  and  horseback,  formation  drill, 
such  as  increasing  and  diminishing  the  front,  the  aids  in 
horsemanship,  right  and  left  closing,  the  proper  applications 
of  the  bridle,  hand  and  legs,  which  enable  the  riders  to 
direct  and  determine  the  turnings  and  paces  of  their  mounts, 
make  them  obey  the  bits,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
freedom  of  the  right  hand  to  use  their  swords  or  other 
arms."  Mounted  recruits  are  also  regularly  exercised  in 
marches  of  eight  or  ten  miles  in  military  fashion,  and  sent 
out  in  patrol  parties  under  an  experienced  leader. 

So  much  for  the  riding-school  side  of  the  mounted 
recruit's  life.  From  the  farrier  and  the  veterinary  surgeon 
he  next  learns  how  to  take  care  of  his  steed  while  out  in  the 
bush,  how  to  shoe  it  and  how  to  apply  remedies  for  simple 
ailments.  The  horses  supplied  to  the  troopers,  it  may  be 
said  here,  are  of  a  very  high  standard.  Bred  from  good 
strains  and  raised  in  the  State,  they  can  compare  with  any  in 
the  country.  A  fine  specimen  of  the  breed  is  depicted  in  the 
illustration  opposite  page  216. 

In  the  class-rooms  of  the  depot  the  would-be  mounted 
policeman  is  instructed  in  the  various  other  branches  of  his 
work.  He  is  taught  how  to  take  finger-prints,  a  most 
important  feature  of  the  system  ;  and  how  to  discover 
finger  impressions  on  smooth  boards,  glass,  or  other  material. 
Then  come  lessons  in  matters  relating  to  police  duties, 
necessitating  the  study  of  the  "  Police  Rules,"  and  the 
various  Acts  referring  to  vagrancy,  police  offences,  crimes, 
etc.  To  acquire  proficiency  in  framing  reports  he  practises 
drawing  up  accounts  of  cases  given  in  the  official  Gazette, 

—  218  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

while  he  further  gains  knowledge  of  the  conduct  of  police 
cases  by  attending  the  courts. 

As  the  trooper  stationed  in  a  country  district  must  be 
ready  to  meet  any  emergency  that  may  arise  he  can  hardly 
know  too  much.  Such  useful  qualifications  as  a  know- 
ledge of  ambulance  work  and  first  aid  to  the  injured  come 
within  his  scope.  Special  instruction  in  ^this  direction  is 
given  to  every  man,  and  one  finds  many  notes  in  the  police 
files  testifying  to  the  value  of  such  teaching.  "  Constable 
Campbell  of  Bobadah,"  we  read  in  one  instance,  "  is  de- 
serving of  commendation  for  his  humane  action  in  assisting 
in  a  case  of  snake-bite,  some  distance  out  of  the  township, 
in  the  absence  of  medical  advice.  The  constable,  on  hear- 
ing that  a  lad  had  been  bitten,  hastened  to  the  scene,  tied 
ligatures  around  the  limb,  scarified  and  sucked  the  wound, 
and  did  everything  else  possible,  with  the  satisfactory  re- 
sult that  the  boy  recovered." 

The  mounted  policeman  "  out  back  "  is  often  Clerk  of 
the  Petty  Sessions  and  the  stand-by  of  the  local  magistrate. 
More  often  than  not  he  knows  the  statutes  better  than  the 
entire  bench,  and  his  timely  word  helps  to  preserve  the 
majesty  of  the  law.  They  tell  a  good  story  of  a  local  justice 
of  the  peace  who  was  a  big  station  owner  in  the  north  and 
a  man  noted  for  his  fiery  temper  as  for  his  lack  of  education. 
Riding  round  his  domain  one  day  with  a  trooper  who  had 
paid  him  a  call,  he  made  a  terrible  discovery.  A  swagman 
had  camped  on  his  sheep  run  and  killed  a  ewe  for  his  dinner. 
What  was  even  worse,  he  had  broken  down  the  wire  fence, 
allowing  some  hundreds  of  sheep  to  stray. 

Mr.  Brown,  as  we  will  call  him,  fixed  the  delinquent 
with  blazing  eyes.  In  a  country  where  every  wayfarer, 
however  poor,  may  reckon  upon  hospitality,  the  commission 

—  219  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  such  a  crime  as  sheep-killing  is  regarded  as  a  most 
heinous  offence.  When  he  had  found  words  to  express  his 
wrath  he  spluttered  out — 

"  Do  ye  see  this,  Beresford  !  The  unmentionable  black- 
guard !  We'll  make  an  example  of  him,  Beresford." 

Beresford  (it  was  not  his  name,  really,  but  never  mind) 
said,  "  Yes,  sir,"  with  stern  significance. 

"  It's  worse  than  murder,  Beresford  !  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Am  I  not  a  magistrate,  Beresford  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  The  law  must  be  upheld,  eh  ?  " 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Well,  then,  I'll— Til  hang  him  for  it,  Beresford,"  cried 
the  irate  squatter.  "  I  will — I'll  Tiang  him  !  " 

"  Yes,  sir,"  said  the  imperturbable  trooper.  And  the 
wretched  swagman,  conscious  of  the  enormity  of  his  crime 
and  by  this  time  in  abject  fear,  grovelled  on  the  ground. 

"  I'm  in  my  rights,  Beresford,  and  the  evidence  is  con- 
clusive. We've  caught  him  red-handed."  Mr.  Brown 
paused  for  another  explosion  of  wrath,  which  incidentally 
brought  him  under  the  Act  directed  against  the  use  of 
strong  language,  and  proceeded  to  address  the  "  prisoner 
at  the  bar."  Having  summed  up  judicially  he  passed 
sentence  of  death  in  his  most  impressive  manner,  and  Beres- 
ford, uncovering,  wound  up  with  "  God  save  the  King  !  " 

Pending  his  execution  the  miserable  and  well-frightened 
prisoner  spent  the  night  in  bonds  in  a  stable.  The  next 
morning  (much  against  Mr.  Brown's  will,  no  doubt)  the 
trooper  carried  him  off  to  the  nearest  township,  where  in 
due  course  a  less  severe  sentence  was  imposed  upon  him 
by  a  properly  constituted  bench. 

—  220  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

Whether  or  no  the  above  story  is  apocryphal,  the  allu- 
sion to  troopers  acting  as  Clerks  of  Petty  Sessions  reminds 
us  of  the  many  extraneous  duties  that  are  constantly  being 
performed  by  the  mounted  police.  The  following  note  on  a 
year's  work,  which  occurs  in  a  recent  report  of  the  Inspector- 
General,  is  illuminating.  He  says  : — 

"  The  inquiries  made  and  the  work  performed  by  the 
police  for  other  departments  of  the  public  service  continue 
to  increase.  Six  hundred  and  twenty-one  (621)  communica- 
tions were  received  from  the  Department  of  Public  Health 
for  transmission  to  the  police  in  country  districts,  in  addi- 
tion to  a  number  forwarded  direct  to  the  Metropolitan 
Superintendent  of  Police.  Proceedings  have  been  conducted 
by  the  police,  on  behalf  of  the  Department  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, in  four  hundred  and  sixty-eight  (468)  cases  under  the 
compulsory  clauses  of  the  Education  Act,  for  neglect  to 
send  children  to  school,  etc.  Inquiries  have  been  conducted 
in  two  thousand  five  hundred  and  forty-four  (2,544)  cases 
for  the  Master-in-Lunacy,  one  thousand  nine  hundred  (1,900) 
for  the  Boarding-out  Officer  and  Chief  Officer  under  the 

'  Children's    Protection   Act,  1902,'  and  one   hundred  and 

f 

sixty-seven  (167)  for  the  Medical  Inspector  of  Charities. 
One  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-six  (1,626)  inquiries 
were  made  by  the  police  to  recover  moneys  advanced,  and 
on  other  matters  connected  with  the  State  Labour  Bureau. 
Seven  hundred  and  fifty-four  (754)  notices  were  served  on 
behalf  of  the  Department  of  Lands,  and  four  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  (458)  for  the  Land  Appeal  Court.  One  thousand 
two  hundred  and  forty-four  (1,244)  inquiries  were  made  for 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  connection  with  the 
recovery  for  moneys  for  seed  wheat  supplied,  etc.,  one 
hundred  and  forty-eight  (148)  inquiries  were  made  for  the 

—  221  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Fisheries  Department,  five  hundred  and  twelve  (512)  for 
the  Government  Statistician,  sixty-five  (65)  for  the  Govern- 
ment Savings  Bank  of  New  South  Wales,  twenty-four  (24) 
for  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  '  Shearers'  Accommodation 
Act,'  two  hundred  and  eighty-six  (286)  for  Lthe  Explosives 
Department,  twenty-seven  (27)  for  the  Taxation  Depart- 
ment, one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  (157)  for  the  Resumed 
Properties  Branch,  fifty-nine  (59)  for  the  Randwick  Asylum, 
and  twenty-five  (25)  for  the  Registrar-General  under  the 
'  Registration  of  Firms  Act '  ;  six  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  (673)  for  the  Chief  Secretary's  Department  respecting 
Justices  of  the  Peace  and  nominations  for  the  Commission 
of  the  Peace  ;  two  thousand  seven  hundred  (2,700)  for 
the  same  Department  respecting  charitable  allowances, 
and  nine  hundred  and  nine  (909)  respecting  the  licensing  of 
racecourses. 

"  Reports  were  furnished  regarding  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  (1,828)  applications  for  expenses 
of  witnesses  attending  Police  and  Coroners'  Courts,  one 
hundred  and  fifty-seven  (157)  in  connection  with  tramway 
accidents,  and  forty-nine  (49)  for  the  Sheriff  respecting  the 
death  of  jurors  (a  considerable  number  of  reports  were  also 
furnished  direct  by  the  police  for  the  information  of  the 
Board  for  Invalidity  and  Accidents  Pensions  in  Sydney,  in 
addition  to  numerous  inquiries  made  for  the  various  local 
Boards),  and  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  (148)  inquiries 
were  made  for  the  Immigration  and  Tourist  Bureau  respect- 
ing the  proposed  settlement  of  immigrants  on  the  land,  etc. 

"  With  a  view  to  assisting  the  Board  of  Health  in  their 
administration  of  the  '  Private  Hospitals  Act,  1908,'  in- 
quiries have  been  made  by  the  police  during  the  year  regard- 
ing all  persons  conducting  private  hospitals  throughout  the 

—  222  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

State,  the  class  of  buildings  utilized,  and  the  accommodation 
provided,  etc.  Four  thousand  five  hundred  and  nineteen 
(4,519)  similar  inquiries  were  made  by  the  police,  at  the 
instance  of  the  Chief  Secretary,  upon  the  passing  of  the 
'  Theatres  and  Public  Halls  Act,'  regarding  halls  required 
to  be  licensed  under  the  Act. 

"  Arrangements  having  been  made  by  the  Government 
for  the  payment  of  invalidity  and  accidents  pensions,  which 
are  payable  by  the  State,  through  public  officers,  half- 
monthly,  on  and  after  the  llth  November,  instead  of 
monthly,  through  the  Bank  of  New  South  Wales,  as  formerly, 
I  consented  to  the  police,  at  certain  places,  including  those 
who  are  Acting  Clerks  of  Petty  Sessions,  undertaking  these 
duties  as  may  be  found  necessary. 

"  The  police  at  various  centres  still  continue  to  perform 
duties  for  the  Commonwealth  in  connection  with  the  '  Com- 
monwealth Invalidity  and  Old-age  Pensions  Act,'  consisting 
of  the  completion  of  forms,  submitting  original  claims  for  and 
renewals  of  pensions,  furnishing  reports  to  the  Registrar 
in  regard  to  applications  for  warrants  under  section  33  of  the 
Principal  Act,  collecting  necessary  evidence,  and  reporting 
where  further  information  is  required  in  connection  with 
claims,  reporting  cases  of  removal,  attending  Board  meet- 
ings when  required  to  give  evidence,  and  filing  informations 
against  pensioners  where  false  declarations  have  been  made, 
and  prosecuting  offenders  in  Police  Courts. 

"  In  the  month  of  September,  at  the  instance  of  the 
Commonwealth  Government,  the  police  throughout  the  State 
commenced  a  canvass  with  a  view  to  bringing  the  Federal 
electoral  rolls  up  to  date.  The  work  was  satisfactorily  and 
expeditiously  completed,  the  only  expense  to  the  Common- 
wealth Government  being  the  travelling  allowances  of  the 

—  223  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

police  engaged  on  the  work  and  actual  out-of-pocket  ex- 
penses for  postage,  freight,  baits,  etc." 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing  we  find  the  mounted  police 
filling  the  important  posts  of  mining  registrars,  mining 
wardens'  clerks  and  bailiffs,  registrars  of  Small  Debts 
Courts,  issuers  of  miners'  rights,  business  and  min- 
eral licences,  acting  foresters,  registrars  of  births,  deaths, 
and  marriages,  inspectors  under  the  Diseases  in  Sheep 
Act,  inspectors  of  vineyards,  inspectors  under  the  Alien 
Immigration  Acts,  inspectors  under  the  Fisheries  Act, 
crown  lands  rangers,  inspectors  under  the  Early  Closing 
Act,  \ inspectors  under  Noxious  Trades  Act,  agents  for  the 
Curator  of  Intestate  Estates,  agents  for  the  Aborigines  Pro- 
tection Board  and  collectors  of  aborigines  yearly  census, 
agents  for  inquiries  under  the  Poisons  Act,  issuers  of  permits 
for  sheep  to  travel,  receivers  and  distributors  of  money 
under  Deserted  Wives  and  Childrens  Act,  inspectors  under 
Factories  and  Shops  Act,  issuers  of  timber,  fuel,  and 
quarry  licences,  agents  for  Labour  Commissioners,  receivers 
of  cormorant  heads  and  issuers  of  certificates  for  payment. 

And  this  is  not  all.  Almost  every  Department  of  the 
State  looks  to  the  police  for  assistance  in  one  way  or  another, 
and  the  whole  of  the  help  rendered  is  done  free  of  charge. 
The  Inspector-General  not  unreasonably  asks  whether  the 
Commonwealth  Government  ought  not  to  pay  for  these 
varied  duties.  There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that,  were 
the  services  of  the  police  not  made  available,  the  Common- 
wealth would  be  at  considerable  expense  both  in  the  matter 
of  the  collection  of  electoral  rolls  and  in  obtaining  the 
information  now  furnished  by  the  police  of  the  State.  It 
is  a  fact,  too,  that  in  view  of  the  prevailing  conditions  some 
of  the  work  could  hardly  be  carried  out  without  this  assist- 

—  224  — 


WORK  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES 

ance,  and  the  present  arrangement  certainly  makes  for 
effectiveness  and  economy.  The  police  do  not  grumble  at 
the  burden  of  work,  they  are  ready  enough  to  "  run  the 
show  "  :  what  they  ask  is  adequate  compensation  for  services 
rendered. 

With  the  course  of  years  have  come  a  few  changes  in 
uniform,  all  of  which  have  tended  to  increased  smartness  in 
appearance.  The  New  South  Wales  trooper  of  to-day  is  a 
striking  figure  in  his  blue  cloth  jacket,  Bedford  cord  breeches, 
black  riding  boots,  and  black  cloth  cap  with  its  French 
peak.  This  is  his  working  dress  ;  for  parade  he  dons  a 
white  helmet,  white  buckskin  crossbelt  and  sword-belt, 
and  white  buckskin  gloves.  In  the  bush  he  will  exchange 
his  showy  "  Wellingtons  "  for  more  serviceable  brown  boots 
and  leggings,  which  do  not  call  for  constant  cleaning.  The 
carbine  now  used  by  the  mounted  police  is  the  Martini- 
Henry,  this  being  carried  in  a  bucket  on  the  saddle.  The 
revolver  is  the  well-known  Adams  pattern  or  the  Webley, 
these  having  superseded  the  heavier  Colt. 

Lastly,  a  word  as  to  the  pay  of  the  police,  which  is  the 
same  for  mounted  men  as  for  the  foot.  The  scale  is  as 
follows  :  Probationary  constables,  6s.  6d.  per  day  ;  ordi- 
nary constables,  7s.  Qd.  rising,  after  three  years'  service, 
to  85. ;  constables,  1st  class,  8s.  Qd.  ;  senior-constables,  9s.  ; 
sergeants,  2nd  class,  10s.  3d.  ;  sergeants,  1st  class,  lls.  6d.  ; 
detectives,  from  10s.  to  14s.  All  non-commissioned  officers 
and  constables  not  provided  with  quarters  receive  an  allow- 
ance of  Is.  per  day.  On  retirement  at  the  age  of  sixty,  or  if 
certified  unfit  for  service  earlier,  a  policeman  is  awarded  a 
pension  according  to  the  number  of  years  he  has  been  in  the 
force.  For  thirty  years'  service  full  salary  is  granted,  for 
twenty-five  years'  three-quarters  pay,  for  twenty  years' 

—  225  —  g 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

two-thirds  pay,  and  for  fifteen  years'  half-pay.  For  those 
appointed  to  the  force  since  1906  the  scale  of  pension  for 
twenty  years  and  upwards  has  been  fixed  at  *V  of  the  salary 
for  each  completed  year  of  service.1 

1  All  members  of  the  Police  Force  subscribe  4  per  cent,  of  their  salaries 
to  a  Superannuation  Fund,  from  which  pensions  and  gratuities  are  payable 
to  those  who  reach  the  age  limit  or  who  may  be  certified  unfit  for  further 
service  by  the  Medical  Board.  Widows  of  members  of  the  force  are  also 
entitled  to  gratuities  from  the  Police  Reward  Fund.  These  grants  are 
made  under  the  "  Police  Regulation  (Superannuation)  Act  "  of  1906. 


—  226  — 


CHAPTER   XIII 

WITH  THE    VICTORIAN   POLICE 

The  Port  Phillip  settlement — Superintendent  Latrobe — Separation 
demanded — The  colony  of  Victoria — Policing  arrangements — High 
Constables — Captain  Lonsdale — Mounted  police — Captain  Mair — 
A  native  corps — Mr.  W.  H.  F.  Mitchell,  Chief  Commissioner — Captain 
Charles  Macmahon — Highway  robberies — The  tables  turned — A 
Melville  story — Uniforms — Captain  F.  C.  Standish,  Chief  Commis- 
sioner— Power,  the  bushranger — An  exciting  capture — Superinten- 
dents Hare  and  Nicholson — Quelling  a  mutiny — Mr.  H.  M.  Chomley 
appointed — Mr.  T.  O'Callaghan,  Chief  Commissioner — Police  figures — 
At  the  depot — Pay. 

THE  settlement  of  Port  Phillip  by  John  Batman  and 
John  Pascoe  Fawkner,  and  its  growth  under  New 
South  Wales  jurisdiction,  has  already  been  touched  upon. 
It  remains  to  sketch  briefly  the  events  which  led  to  its 
separation  from  the  older  colony  and  the  constitution  of 
the  State  of  Victoria. 

From  the  very  first  there  was  trouble.  The  Port  Phillip 
settlers  chafed  under  the  distant  rule  of  the  Legislative 
Council  at  Sydney.  Mr.  Latrobe,  who  had  been  sent  out  in 
1839  to  take  charge  of  the  settlement,  with  the  title  of 
Superintendent,  found  the  community  grow  too  fast  for 
him.  The  demand  for  land  was  so  great  that  the  authorities 
could  scarcely  keep  pace  with  it.  And  as  the  population 
increased  accordingly  the  general  discontent  began  to 
manifest  itself  openly.  The  settlers'  grievances  were 

—  227  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

augmented  in  1840  when  the  boundary  of  New  South  Wales 
was  fixed  to  include  a  number  of  districts  which  it  had  been 
proposed  to  leave  in  the  southern  division.  It  was  felt  that 
the  time  had  come  when  Port  Phillip  was  strong  enough  to 
stand  on  its  own  legs. 

A  concession  was  made  in  1842  when  the  English  Parlia- 
ment passed  an  Act  by  which  the  southern  settlement  was 
empowered  to  send  six  representatives  to  the  Legislative 
Council.  But  this  was  not  sufficient  ;  the  inhabitants 
clamoured  for  autonomy.  Two  years  later  an  attempt  was 
made  to  bring  about  the  desired  separation  without  avail, 
the  Council  negativing  the  proposal.  In  order,  therefore, 
to  draw  the  attention  of  the  Imperial  Government  to  the 
state  of  affairs,  Melbourne  nominated  and  duly  returned 
"  The  Right  Honourable  Henry  Grey,  Earl  Grey  in  the 
peerage  of  Great  Britain,"  the  then  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Colonies,  as  its  representative  hi  Sydney.  To  this  farcical 
proceeding  the  Governor,  Sir  Charles  Fitzroy,  rejoined  by 
declaring  the  election  null  and  void.  But  though  eventually 
local  representatives  were  secured,  Earl  Grey  was  now  made 
aware  of  the  necessity  for  reform,  and  steps  were  taken  to 
effect  the  change. 

The  defeat  of  the  Government  of  which  Earl  Grey  was 
a  member  somewhat  delayed  matters.  In  1850,  however, 
an  Act  passed  through  the  British  Parliament  authorising 
the  separation,  and  in  the  following  year  the  colony  of 
Victoria  was  proclaimed.  Mr.  Latrobe  was  appointed  the 
first  Governor.  At  this  juncture,  as  we  have  seen,  there 
occurred  the  great  gold  discoveries,  following  upon  those  of 
New  South  Wales.  The  influx  of  people  into  the  colony  sent 
up  its  population  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  Victoria  entered 
upon  its  independent  career  with  bright  prospects.  Its 

—  228  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

subsequent  vicissitudes  are  a  matter  of  history,  which  it 
is  beyond  our  purpose  to  follow. 

The  policing  arrangements  of  Port  Phillip  in  its  earliest 
days  were  very  primitive.  That  some  sort  of  watchmen  or 
constables  were  appointed  is  evident  from  the  fact  that 
there  was  a  High  Constable  in  charge  of  the  settlement.  In 
1836  this  post  was  filled  by  Robert  Day,  his  successors 
being  Henry  Batman  (1837),  William  Wright  (1838),  F. 
A.  Falkiner  (1841),  and  Joseph  Bloomfield  (1848).  A 
few  years  before  Mr.  Latrobe  received  his  commission  as 
Superintendent  of  the  embryo  colony  the  authorities  at 
Sydney  had  sent  out  Captain  Lonsdale  with  a  small — very 
small — body  of  soldiers  to  assume  charge  of  affairs.  So  far 
as  he  may  be  regarded  a  chief  of  police  Lonsdale  represents 
the  first  attempt  at  legally  constituted  authority. 

The  following  memorandum,  which  appears  in  the 
Captain's  report  to  his  superiors  at  Sydney,  throws  an 
interesting  light  on  the  conditions  prevailing  in  the  settle- 
ment. He  says  :  "  As  to  the  state  of  order  among  the 
people,  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  they  were  as  peaceable 
as  could  reasonably  be  expected  under  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  were  placed,  but  I  know  that  repeated  repre- 
sentations were  made  to  the  Sydney  Government  to  the 
contrary,  of  so  strong  a  nature  that  Sir  Richard  Bourke 
thought  there  was  a  probability  of  some  resistance  being 
offered  to  his  establishing  authority  in  the  place  ;  and 
directed  me  to  apply  to  Captain  Hobson  for  the  marines  of 
his  ship,  should  I  find  the  detachment  of  troops  I  took 
with  me  insufficient.  This,  however,  was  perfectly  useless, 
the  people  were  quite  quiet,  the  only  indication  to  the  con- 
trary was  the  simple  circumstance  of  the  printed  proclama- 
tions which  I  had  caused  to  be  posted  up  being  torn  down. 

—  229  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

One  of  the  first  persons  who  made  himself  known  to  me  was 
Dr.  Thomson, l  who,  with  a  formidable  brace  of  pistols  in 
his  belt,  told  me  he  was  very  glad  I  had  arrived,  as  they 
were  in  a  most  lawless  state,  and  always  hi  dread  of  being 
assaulted,  or  something  to  that  effect." 

The  evolution  of  a  police  force  from  the  more  or  less 
military  guard  provided  by  the  New  South  Wales  Govern- 
ment was  only  a  matter  of  time.  The  expansion  of  the 
colony  brought  with  it  the  need  for  proper  protective  mea- 
sures. In  1850  we  find  a  regular  body  of  mounted  police  in 
Melbourne  under  Captain  Sturt,  the  officer  who  subsequently 
ran  to  earth  the  robbers  of  the  gold-ship  Nelson.  After  him 
came  Captain  Mair,  who  joined  the  force  in  1847,  and  was 
appointed  Commissioner  and  Paymaster  in  1853.  Prior  to 
this  he  had  served  in  the  New  South  Wales  police.  It  was 
during  Captain  Mair's  occupation  of  office  that  the  mounted 
police  were  called  upon  to  undertake  the  early  pacification 
of  the  goldfields,  for  which  special  duty  black  troopers  were 
enrolled. 

In  this  connection  we  may  note  that  the  establishment 
of  a  force  of  native  mounted  police  dates  to  a  much  earlier 
period.  Soon  after  the  opening  of  Port  Phillip  a  New  South 
Wales  officer  named  De  Villiers  attempted  to  form  such  a 
corps,  but  the  results  were  not  satisfactory.  This  was  in 
1836  or  1837.  About  six  years  later  Mr.  Latrobe  revived 
the  scheme,  placing  at  the  head  of  the  corps  an  Englishman 
named  Dana,  and  the  experiment  is  stated  to  have  justified 
itself.  The  establishment  of  the  native  mounted  police, 
as  distinct  from  the  border  police,  first  appeared  on  the  Port 

1  This  gentleman  was  the  chief  medical  and  religious  officer  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  acted  as  police  officer  and  arbitrator  prior  to 
Captain  Lonsdale's  arrival.  At  this  period  Melbourne  numbered  about 
150  souls, 

—  230  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

Phillip  estimates  for  1843,  when  the  sum  of  £2,675  5s.  was 
voted  for  their  support.  In  a  report  from  Dana,  addressed 
from  "The  Police  Paddock,  Menmi  Creek, "to  Superintendent 
Latrobe,  that  officer  wrote  in  high  commendation  of  his  little 
force.  The  strength  (in  1848)  was  twenty-seven,  being 
composed  of  a  superintendent  (Dana  himself),  an  overseer 
or  sergeant,  one  native  sergeant  and  twenty-four  troopers. 
Their  uniform  consisted  of  a  green  jacket  with  opossum  skin 
facings,  black  or  green  trousers  with  a  red  stripe,  and  a 
green  cap  with  a  similar  red  stripe  around  it.  The  arms 
carried  were  flint-lock  carbines  and  bayonets. 

In  succession  to  Captain  Mair1  the  next  head  of  the 
mounted  police  was  Mr.  William  Henry  Fancourt  Mitchell, 
who  had  been  Acting  Colonial  Secretary  in  Tasmania  before 
he  came  to  Victoria  to  settle  as  a  squatter.  To  this  gentle- 
man Mr.  Latrobe  turned  when  the  need  arose  for  reorganisa- 
tion of  the  police  force.  Mr.  Mitchell  accepted  the  post  of 
Chief  Commissioner  that  was  offered  him,  and,  with  almost 
unlimited  powers  of  action,  he  quickly  brought  about  a  new 
order  of  things.  It  was  he  who  introduced  the  cadet  system 
by  promising  a  number  of  smart  young  fellows  commissions 
and  outfits  as  police  cadets  consequent  on  their  passing 
through  a  successful  probation  in  hunting  down  bushrangers 
and  performing  escort-duty.  This  scheme  had  a  dual  effect. 
It  served  to  stamp  out  highway  robbery  in  the  colony  at  the 
same  time  that  it  trained  an  efficient  body  of  officers  for  the 
force. 

Chief  Commissioner  Mitchell,  however,  did  not  remain 
in  office  more  than  a  year.  He  went  back  to  England  on 
leave  of  absence,  and  on  returning  to  Australia  entered 

1  Captain  Mair  retired  on  half  pay  in  1868,  and  on  full  pension  in 
1874. 

—  231  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

political  life.  In  1856  he  was  elected  to  the  Legislative 
Council,  of  which  he  subsequently  became  President,  and  hi 
1875  his  services  were  recognised  by  the  bestowal  of  a  knight- 
hood. A  fitting  successor  to  Mr.  Mitchell  was  found  in 
Captain  Charles  Macmahon,  who  had  been  appointed  head 
of  the  city  police  of  Melbourne  and  Assistant  Commissioner. 
In  1854  this  officer  took  control  of  affairs  in  his  chief's 
absence,  in  due  course  being  appointed  to  the  supreme 
command. 

By  the  time  that  the  digger  troubles  had  culminated  in 
the  Eureka  Stockade  episode  the  Victorian  mounted  police 
were  freed  from  their  vexatious  duties  on  the  fields,  and  were 
able  to  concentrate  their  energies  on  the  suppression  of 
crimes  of  violence.  These  had  increased  considerably 
within  a  year  or  two.  The  motley  crew  who  found  their 
way  into  the  colony  in  the  wake  of  the  genuine  gold-seekers 
provided  no  little  sensation  in  the  matter  of  "  sticking  up  " 
and  robbing  travellers.  In  1853,  to  cite  but  one  instance  of 
the  kind,  the  Gold  Escort  from  the  Mclvor  fields  was  stopped 
and  over  £5,000  worth  of  gold  was  stolen.  Three  police 
troopers,  who  rode  with  the  cart,  were  all  wounded,  while 
the  driver  was  shot  fatally.  The  robbers  made  away  with 
their  booty  into  the  bush,  but  a  few  months  after  the  guilty 
parties  were  arrested,  and  three  of  the  five  implicated  were 
executed. 

In  and  around  Melbourne  cases  of  highway  robbery  were 
so  frequent  as  to  arouse  public  indignation  over  the  powerless- 
ness  of  the  police.  The  streets  after  dark  were  unsafe  for 
individuals,  owing  to  the  number  of  desperate  characters 
about.  But  with  the  hardened,  stop-at-nothing  criminals 
were  several  amateurs  who  in  the  general  terror  saw  a 
chance  to  try  their  luck  at  the  game.  It  could  not  have 

—  232  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

been  a  genuine  "  tough  "  in  the  case  of  the  Geelong  resi- 
dent whose  experience  was  chronicled  in  the  newspapers 
of  the  time.  This  gentleman  was  returning  home  with  a 
bottle  of  brandy  under  his  arm  when  he  was  suddenly  sum- 
moned to  "  Bail  up  !  "  With  the  utmost  sang-froid  he  drew 
out  the  bottle  in  pistol  fashion  and  presented  it  at  the  head 
of  the  seeming  bushranger  with  the  words,  "  You  bail  up  !  " 
At  this  the  other  dropped  his  weapon  and  took  to  his  heels, 
but  a  peremptory  command  to  "  Stop  or  be  shot  dead !  " 
checked  his  flight.  Then  the  hero  of  this  story,  after  decid- 
ing that  it  was  too  much  trouble  to  take  his  capture  to  the 
lock-up,  administered  a  sound  drubbing  to  him,  carrying  off 
the  man's  pistol  as  a  trophy. 

This  incident  reminds  one  of  that  other  occasion  when 
"  Thunderbolt  "  is  said  to  have  introduced  a  like  touch  of 
comedy  in  an  encounter  with  the  police  by  scaring  two 
troopers  with  an  empty  ginger-beer  bottle  !  Much  has  been 
made  of  this  by  those  who  have  sought  to  belittle  the 
Australian  mounted  police,  but  even  if  it  be  true  what  does 
it  count  for  ?  The  bushrangers  of  those  days  had  ample 
experience  of  the  pluck  of  the  troopers  when  it  came  to 
hand-grips.  The  redoubtable  "  Captain  "  Melville,  one  of 
Victoria's  highwaymen,  once  encountered  a  well-known 
police  officer  who  was  riding  through  the  bush  alone  and 
unarmed.  He  carried  off  his  prisoner  to  his  "camp,"  where 
two  other  men,  his  accomplices,  were  waiting.  The  officer 
taunted  Melville  with  his  "  bravery  "  in  seizing  him  with 
such  a  show  of  force.  The  "  Captain  "  lost  his  temper,  and, 
snatching  a  revolver  from  his  belt,  pointed  it  at  the  other's 
head. 

"  If  you  say  another  word,"  he  growled,  "  I'll  blow  your 
brains  out  !  " 

—  233  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

"  Not  you,"  answered  the  policeman  coolly ;  "  you 
daren't  do  it." 

They  remained  eye  to  eye  for  some  moments,  then  the 

bushranger's  hand  dropped.  "  You're  a plucky  chap, 

and  no  mistake  !  "  he  said. 

Melville  treated  his  prize  with  more  consideration  after 
this  test  of  nerve,  and  probably  did  not  begrudge  the  chance 
of  escape  which  afterwards  offered  and  of  which  the  police- 
man promptly  availed  himself. 

The  rank  and  file,  too,  were  not  slow  to  show  their  mettle 
when  put  to  it.  There  is  the  right  ring  about  the  story  of 
the  trooper  who  kept  three  bushrangers  at  bay  until  they 
forced  him  from  his  cover.  Although  the  odds  were  so 
heavy  against  him  he  still  refused  to  surrender,  and  he  died 
fighting  with  his  back  to  a  tree,  having  emptied  his  revolver 
and  accounted  for  one  at  least  of  his  assailants. 

In  a  copy  of  the  "  Police  Regulations  "  for  1856  we  find 
particulars  of  the  uniform  of  that  period.  The  dress  of  the 
mounted  men  was  modelled  after  that  of  the  New  South 
Wales  troopers,  comprising  blue  cloth  jacket,  waterproof 
cape,  cloak,  blue  cloth  trousers  (white  for  summer  wear), 
white  cotton  or  buckskin  gloves,  a  jumper,  neck  scarf,  and 
Wellington  or  Napoleon  boots.  A  black  leather  cap  was 
worn,  with  a  detachable  white  cover.  A  note  is  added  to  the 
effect  that  the  jumper  must  be  used  only  in  quarters,  while 
the  constable  was  on  fatigue  or  other  duty  of  a  similar 
nature,  or  while  patrolling  in  the  bush  or  doing  escort  duty. 
On  all  other  occasions  the  jacket  was  to  be  worn. 

Each  mounted  man  in  addition  was  to  supply  himself 
with  sword-belt,  cap  pouch,  trouser  straps,  military  and 
bush  spurs,  and  the  outfit  necessary  for  grooming  his  horse. 

The  uniform  of  "officers  included  a  blue  cloth  single- 
—  234  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

breasted  frock  coat,  with  standing  collar  and  service  buttons; 
an  overcoat  of  like  fashion  ;  blue  cloth  trousers  with  black 
lace  stripe  down  the  sides,  white  cloth  being  adopted  for  the 
summer  ;  white  cotton  or  buckskin  gloves  ;  high  riding  boots 
of  the  usual  pattern  ;  and  a  blue  cloth  cap  with  patent 
leather  peak  and  black  lace  band.  The  cap  was  provided 
with  an  oil-skin  or  leather  cover  for  winter,  and  a  white 
cover  for  summer  use.  An  old-fashioned  touch  was  given 
to  the  dress  by  the  wearing  of  a  stock,  or  black  silk  necker- 
chief. 

Experience  showed  that  the  cloth  trousers  tore  too  easily, 
and  they  were  in  time  replaced  by  serge  ones  of  more  strength. 
The  riding  pants,  as  now,  were  made  of  narrow-rib  Bedford 
cord,  such  as  is  worn  by  the  trooper  police  of  other  States. 
A  later  modification  was  the  adoption  of  a  helmet  in  place  of 
the  old  type  mounted  police  cap,  which  was  of  the  following 
shape —  

r^  ~^\ 

Police  carbines,  /  \  pistols  and  swords 
were  the  arms  car-  L \  ried ;  swords,  how- 
ever, being  used  only  for  parade  occasions. 

Captain  Macmahon  resigned  the  post  of  Chief  Commis- 
sioner in  1858,  to  enter  Parliament  shortly  after.1  He  was 
succeeded  by  Captain  Frederick  Charles  Standish,  another 
retired  Army  officer  who  had  come  out  to  Australia.  Captain 
Standish  reached  Victoria  in  1852,  and  two  years  later 
was  appointed  Assistant  Commissioner  of  Goldfields  at 
Sandhurst.  He  afterwards  became  Chinese  Protector,  from 
which  position  he  was  transferred  to  the  command  of  the 
police. 

In  the  twenty  odd  years  of  Captain  Standish 's  tenure  of 

1  He  became  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  in  1871  and  received  the  honour 
of  knighthood  in  1875. 

—  235  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

office  the  most  striking  events  were  the  outbreaks  of  the 
bushranger  Power  and  the  Kelly  gang.  The  story  of  the 
latter  has  been  told  at  some  length  elsewhere,  that  of  Power 
may  be  dealt  with  here.  For  many  months  this  ruffian 
terrorised  the  Ovens  and  Beech  worth  districts,  with  one 
excursion  into  New  South  Wales,  and  at  the  last  gave 
the  mounted  police  one  of  the  most  exciting  chases  on 
record. 

An  Irishman  by  birth,  Harry  Power  began  his  criminal 
career  in  Victoria  as  a  horse-thief.  It  was  soon  evident 
that  he  was  one  of  the  smartest  hands  at  the  game,  being  a 
first-class  rider  and  a  skilled  bushman.  The  police  had  the 
utmost  difficulty  in  bringing  him  to  book.  Power's  undoing 
was  his  firing  at  a  constable  who  called  upon  him  to  show 
the  receipt  of  a  horse  he  was  riding.  The  animal  was  a 
stolen  one,  as  the  policeman  well  knew.  For  "  wounding 
with  intent,"  Power  received  a  sentence  of  fourteen  years' 
imprisonment,  but  before  the  term  had  expired  he  had 
regained  his  freedom.  The  escape  was  effected  by  conceal- 
ing himself  in  a  heap  of  rubbish  which  he  and  other  convicts 
at  Pentridge  Gaol  were  dumping  on  some  waste  ground 
outside  the  prison  walls.  Before  his  absence  had  been  noted 
the  missing  man  had  crept  out  from  his  hiding-place  and 
made  off  into  the  country.  A  raid  on  a  farmhouse  provided 
him  with  fresh  clothes,  while  for  a  weapon  he  relied  upon  the 
blade  of  an  old  sheep-shears  tied  to  the  end  of  a  long  stick. 
This  formidable  "  persuader  "  soon  brought  him  into  posses- 
sion of  a  pistol,  which  he  took  from  a  wayfarer,  and  Power 
forthwith  started  on  his  career  as  a  bushranger. 

As  was  only  to  be  expected  from  such  an  adept  in  crime, 
Power  made  his  plans  carefully.  He  employed  an  efficient 
service  of  bush  telegraphs,  but  beyond  these  had  no  com- 

—  236  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

panion  in  his  raids.  It  was  a  boast  of  his  that  he  would 
never  make  a  confidant  of  man  or  woman.  One  of  his  youth- 
ful aids  at  this  time,  it  is  interesting  to  note,  was  Ned  Kelly, 
the  sharp-witted  youngster  keeping  him  well-posted  in  police 
intelligence.  By  this  means,  and  by  his  remarkable  daring, 
the  bushranger  performed  some  "  sticking  up  "  exploits  in  the 
grand  manner.  Single-handed  he  would  hold  up  a  stage 
coach,  and  make  the  passengers  empty  their  pockets  before 
him  on  the  road  one  by  one,  each  victim  then  being  directed 
to  a  certain  spot  (usually  a  fallen  log)  where  he  was  under 
the  cover  of  Power's  gun.  On  one  such  occasion,  it  is 
stated,  he  plundered  no  fewer  than  thirty  people,  whom  he 
kept  for  hours  sitting  by  the  roadside. 

The  recklessness  and  audacity  with  which  Power  defied 
the  police  goaded  the  authorities  to  exasperation.  The  most 
expert  bushmen  in  the  country,  and  black  trackers,  were 
alike  unable  to  run  him  down.  At  last  the  Chief  Commis- 
sioner sent  for  Superintendent  Hare.  "  I  want  you,"  he 
said,  "  to  go  into  the  north-eastern  district  after  Power. 
Take  any  steps  you  wish,  incur  any  expense  advisable,  but 
get  him."  With  these  carte  blanche  instructions  the  superin- 
tendent left  Melbourne  early  in  May  of  that  year,  1870,  on  his 
quest. 

The  mounted  police  party  was  composed  of  Superin- 
tendents Hare  and  Nicholson,  Sergeant  Montf  ord,  and  Native 
Tracker  Donald.  It  was  only  possible  to  get  on  the  trail 
of  their  quarry  by  suborning  one  of  his  "  telegraphs,"  and  the 
desired  opportunity  soon  offered  itself.  A  man  was  found 
whom  a  reward  of  £500  was  sufficient  to  tempt.  He  pro- 
mised to  lead  the  police  to  Power's  lair. 

The  bushranger's  chosen  hiding-place  was  in  a  ravine 
among  the  ranges  at  the  head  of  the  King  River.  It  was 

—  237  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

guarded  by  the  house  of  a  family  named  Quinn,  who  gave 
Power  notice  of  any  impending  danger  by  cracking  a  stock- 
whip. A  number  of  dogs  were  about  the  place,  but  the  best 
sentinel  of  all  was  a  peacock,  which  every  night  perched  on  a 
rocky  ridge  at  the  entrance  to  the  glen  and  screamed  at  the 
approach  of  a  stranger.  Power  believed  himself  to  be  abso- 
lutely safe  from  a  surprise  attack  with  such  invaluable 
friends  as  these. 

Guided  by  the  betrayer  L the  party  left  Wangaratta 

and  stealthily  made  their  way  through  the  bush.  It  was 
their  plan  to  jump  on  Power  in  the  darkness.  Luckily  for 
the  purpose  it  was  a  windy  and  rainy  night,  otherwise  their 
presence  must  have  been  detected  by  the  animal  watchers. 
In  the  fierce  gusty  downpours  the  dogs  and  the  peacock 
sought  shelter,  and  the  police  stole  through  the  cordon  un- 
seen and  unheard.  What  followed  from  this  point  has  been 
variously  narrated  by  both  Hare  and  Nicholson.  According 
to  the  former  it  was  he  who  first  saw  the  den  wherein  the 
bushranger  lay  asleep,  and  who  made  the  actual  capture. 
Later  on,  however,  Superintendent  Nicholson  denied  many 
of  the  statements  made  by  his  brother  officer,  and  gave  the 
following  version  to  the  press. 

"  After  proceeding  along  the  base  of  the  range,"   he 
says,  "  looking  upwards  for  Power's  camp  fire,  but  without 

catching  the  faintest  glimpse  of  it,  our  guide,  old  L ,  who 

had  for  some  time  been  showing  signs  of  succumbing  to 
cold,  fatigue,  and  terror,  now  collapsed,  and  declared  himself 
unable  to  proceed  one  step  farther,  and  equally  unable  to 
recognise  the  hill  on  which  was  situated  the  outlaw's  lair. 
We  also  were  then  suffering  from  cold,  fatigue,  and  want  of 
food,  and  the  night  was  still  very  dark  and  wet.  I  therefore 
proposed  that  all  the  party  except  myself  should  lie  down 

—  238  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

and  rest,  and  I  undertook  to  watch,  and  to  awaken  them  at 
daybreak.  They  lay  down  on  the  ground.  After  they  had 
had  a  short  sleep  I  aroused  them.  We  resumed  our  search, 
silently  and  carefully  scanning  the  shallow  gullies  on  the  side 
of  the  range  from  there  upwards  to  where  the  gullies  ended 
at  the  crest.  The  range  was  clothed  lightly  with  timber  and 
scrub  towards  the  top  boulders,  and  rock  cropped  up,  whereas 
at  the  bottom,  amongst  the  finer  soil,  were  some  very  large 
trees.  I  was  looking  among  these  latter  for  a  hollow  tree 
stump  which  had  been  described  to  me  as  '  Power's  Watch- 
box  '  by  young  Ned  Kelly,  whom  I  had  left  behind  me 
under  the  care  of  the  police  at  Kyneton.  At  last  my  atten- 
tion was  attracted  by  the  stump  of  a  large  tree,  the  small 
branches  and  leaves  apparently  sprouting  from  it  being 
brown,  withered,  and  dead,  offering  a  striking  contrast 
to  those  of  the  other  stumps,  which  were  alive  and  green. 
Springing  towards  it,  I  found  the  withered  branches  came 
away  in  my  hands,  disclosing  peep-holes  cut  in  the  hollow 
trunk,  which  they  had  served  to  mask.  Inside  was  some  dried 
grass  strewn  on  the  floor,  but  no  bed,  as  Mr.  Hare  describes. 
At  this  time  the  blackfellow,  who  had  been  keeping  near 
me,  recognising  that  I  had  made  a  discovery,  sprang  to- 
wards me  and  looked  at  the  tree.  Without  speaking,  I 

glanced  back  to  old  L ,  who  was  feebly  following  us, 

and  I  pointed  to  the  stump  ;  he  silently  signalled  with  his 
head  and  outstretched  arms  an  affirmative  gesture,  and 
disappeared.  I  never  saw  him  again. 

"  It  was  then  just  daylight,  and  the  mist  was  rolling  up 
the  hills,  rendering  it  almost  impossible  in  some  places  to 
distinguish  it  from  smoke  ;  but  Donald,  after  one  look, 
pointed  straight  up  the  gully,  and,  with  dilated  eyes  and 
nostrils,  uttered  in  a  suppressed  tone  '  Moke  !  Moke ! ' 

—  239  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Hare  and  Montford  were  at  that  time  exploring  a  short  dis- 
tance off.  I  attracted  their  attention  by  a  low  hissing 
whistle,  but  knowing  that  there  was  not  an  instant  to  be  lost, 
as  Power  might  wake  up  at  any  moment,  I  did  not  wait  for 
them,  but  commenced  running  up  the  gully,  whilst  Hare 
and  Montford  followed,  making  a  short  diagonal  cut  to  get 
on  my  line.  As  I  ascended,  a  defined  track  became  plain, 
and  I  then  observed  some  distance  above  me  a  thin  column 
of  smoke  rising  among  some  boulders.  A  little  more,  and  a 
few  yards  to  the  left  of  the  line  I  was  following,  the  small 
fire  and  a  few  cooking  utensils  around  it  appeared  in  view, 
close  to  a  large  boulder  ;  and  straight  before  me,  what  might 
have  been  taken  for  a  small  thicket  of  leafy  green  scrub,  but 
the  straightness  of  one  or  two  of  its  outlines,  as  well  as  a  foot 
in  a  clean  worsted  stocking  projecting  from  the  end  next  to 
the  fire,  betrayed  its  artificial  character.  These  were  on  a 
small  plateau  or  shelf  on  the  side  of  the  range. 

"  With  a  twist  of  my  shoulders,  as  I  ran,  I  got  rid  of 
my  loose  pea-jacket,  which  was  soaked  and  heavy  with  rain, 
and  quickened  my  pace.  The  thicket  was  broadside  to  me, 
its  entrance  and  the  foot  facing  the  fire.  Apprehensive 
lest  the  owner  of  the  foot  should  escape  either  by  the  rear 
or  far  side,  I  waved  my  right  arm  to  Hare  and  Montford, 
who  were  still  behind  and  below  me,  to  go  round,  whilst  I 
made  a  dash  at  the  entrance,  and  throwing  myself  into  the 
gunyah  upon  the  prostrate  body  of  the  occupant,  I  seized 
and  held  him  securely  by  the  wrists  until  the  Superintendent 
and  the  Sergeant  appeared  almost  immediately,  the  former 
catching  the  man  by  his  legs  and  Sergeant  Montford  by 
mVankles.  With  one  simultaneous  heave  we  swung  our 
prisoner  outside,  and  then  the  Sergeant  quietly  handcuffed 
him." 

—  240  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

The  structure  in  which  Power  had  lain  hid  is  described 
as  having  been  low  and  narrow,  but  well  put  together  and 
comfortable.  It  consisted  of  a  good  tough  frame  covered 
with  blankets,  and  these  were  skilfully  concealed  by  leafy 
twigs  and  branches.  There  was  a  neat  floor  of  small  saplings 
about  six  inches  above  the  ground,  upon  which  straw  and 
blankets  were  spread.  When  the  Superintendent  entered, 
Power  lay  half-dressed  on  his  back,  apparently  asleep,  with  his 
revolver  by  his  side.  A  double-barrelled  gun,  loaded  and 
cocked,  was  slung  from  the  ridge  pole  and  so  placed  that 
the  trigger  was  within  easy  reach  of  its  owner's  hand  im- 
mediately he  was  roused.  Mr.  Hare  averred  that  he  seized 
Power  by  the  ankles  and  drew  him  out  of  the  den  ;  Super- 
intendent Nicholson  declares  this  to  have  been  impossible, 
as  it  would  have  meant  certain  death  for  the  aggressor. 
Nicholson's  account  bears  the  impress  of  truth,  and  while 
the  honours  of  the  capture  may  be  shared  fairly  equally 
by  all  concerned,  the  actual  facts  of  the  case  were  no  doubt 
as  he  stated. 

Once  arrested,  Power  gave  no  more  trouble.  He  willingly 
showed  the  police,  who  were  nearly  starving,  where  he  kept 
his  provisions,  and  accompanied  them  to  Wangaratta,  where 
he  was  safely  locked  up  in  a  cell.  It  was  a  Sunday  when  the 
party  arrived  in  the  township,  and  a  crowd  greeted  their 
arrival  with  the  notorious  bushranger.  The  latter  waved 
his  hand  coolly  to  the  people.  "  They've  caught  Harry 
Power,"  he  cried  out,  "  but  they  had  to  catch  him  asleep  !  " 

On  being  tried  and  convicted  on  four  separate  counts  of 
highway  robbery,  Power  was  sent  into  penal  servitude  for 
fifteen  years.  This  term  he  served  in  full,  showing  himself 
to  be  a  very  tractable  prisoner.  It  was  during  his  incar- 
ceration that  a  mutiny  broke  out  among  the  convicts  while 

—  241  —  R 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

a  large  number  of  them  were  assembled  in  the  gaol  dining- 
hall.  The  warders  on  duty  had  great  difficulty  in  quelling 
the  disturbance,  and  seeing  this  Power  offered  to  "  lend  a 
hand."  "  Do  what  you  can,"  said  the  chief  warder,  "  and 
I  promise  you  I  won't  forget  it."  Seizing  a  big  iron  ladle 
that  was  used  for  stirring  the  skilly,  Power  sailed  into  the 
fray,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  ringleaders  were  laid  out  with 
broken  heads. 

"  I'm  sorry  if  I've  hurt  'em  much,  sir,"  explained  Power, 
when  order  was  restored,  "  but  you  told  me  to  do  the  best  I 
could." 

His  good  conduct  in  gaol  was  no  mere  pose  assumed  in 
order  to  obtain  a  remission  of  his  sentence.  On  his  release 
Power  found  honest  employment  without  displaying  any 
tendency  to  revert  to  his  old  evil  ways.  His  death  occurred 
in  1891,  when  he  was  drowned  in  the  Murray  River  while 
making  an  overland  journey  to  Sydney. 

The  Special  Commission  which  sat  to  inquire  into  the 
conduct  of  the  police  hunt  after  the  Kelly^  gang  of  bush- 
rangers was  responsible  for  the  retirement  of  several  officers 
high  in  the  service.  Among  others,  as  has  been  noted  in  an 
earlier  chapter,  Captain  Standish  left  the  force  on  pension. 
This  was  in  1880.  For  a  time  Superintendent  Nicholson,  as 
senior  officer,  held  the  post  of  Acting  Chief  Commissioner 
until  a  fresh  appointment  was  made.  Eventually  Mr. 
Hussey  Malone  Chomley,  who  had  risen  through  the  various 
grades  from  cadet  to  superintendent,  was  selected,  the  new 
chief  entering  upon  his  duties  in  March  1882. 

The  following  two  decades  saw  the  Victorian  mounted 
police  brought  to  a  very  high  state  of  efficiency.  The 
lessons  learned  during  the  recent  troublous  years  were  not 
forgotten,  and  no  pains  were  spared  to  horse  and  arm  the 

—  242  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

troopers  in  the  best  possible  manner.  Old  type  carbines 
and  pistols  were  discarded,  the  newest  patterns  being  ob- 
tained. To  afford  adequate  protection  to  outlying  districts 
several  new  stations  were  opened,  with  the  result  that  the 
State  ere  long  was  regularly  patrolled  from  one  end  to  the 
other.  Chief  Commissioner  Chomley's  reign  was  not  marked 
by  any  serious  outbreak.  It  is  remarkable  for  a  decrease 
in  crime,  a  continuous  strengthening  of  the  power  of  the 
police,  and  for  administrative  work  quietly  but  most  effec- 
tively carried  out. 

When  in  1902  Mr.  Chomley  retired  on  a  superannuation 
allowance  he  was  succeeded  by  the  present  Chief  Commis- 
sioner, Mr.  Thomas  O'Callaghan.  Thirty-five  years  of 
distinguished  service  in  the  force  *•  had  well  earned  Mr. 
O'Callaghan  this  promotion,  and  he  has  proved  its  justi- 
fication by  his  firm  grasp  of  affairs.  At  the  present  day  the 
Victorian  police — particularly  the  mounted  branch — can 
vie  with  any  in  the  continent  for  smartness  and  ability. 

For  police  administrative  purposes  the  State  is  di- 
vided into  ten  districts  as  follows,  the  headquarters  in  each 
case  being  given  in  brackets  : — Melbourne  (Russell  Street), 
Bourke  (Police  Depot,  St.  Kilda  Road),  Central  (Ballarat), 
North-western  (Bendigo),  Western  (Hamilton),  North- 
eastern (Benalla),  Gippsland  (Sale),  Southern  (Geelong), 
Midland  (Maryborough),  Wimmera  (Stawell).  In  all, 
mounted  and  foot,  the  force  distributed  over  these  points 
totals  1,638.  Of  this  number  but  271  are  mounted  men,  a 
considerable  reduction  in  strength  having  taken  place  after 
the  last  bushranging  era  had  passed.  It  is  a  striking  tribute 

1  Mr.  O'Callaghan  entered  the  police  service  in  1867  as  a  detective  ; 
was  promoted  Sub-Inspector  February  1886,  Inspector  January  1892, 
Superintendent  January  1895,  Inspecting  Superintendent  January  1898, 
and  Chief  Commissioner  July  1902. 

—  243  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

to  the  power  of  a  trooper  that  out  of  the  417  Police  Stations 
in  the  State  there  are  165  at  which  a  mounted  constable 
is  the  only  representative  of  authority. 

The  duties  may  be  prosaic  enough  in  these  matter-of-fact 
days  of  the  railway  and  telegraph,  but  there  is  an  appealing 
picturesque  touch  about  the  solitary  blue-coated,  helmeted 
trooper  at  Wallaloo  or  Mudgeegonga,  as  the  case  may  be, 
ruler  of  a  good  many  square  miles,  doing  several  men's 
work  in  one  and  doing  it  remarkably  well.  In  the  country 
districts,  in  what  may  be  termed  generally  "  the  bush," 
the  mounted  constable  is  a  highly  important  personage. 
"  Out  back  there,"  said  an  officer  to  the  writer,  "  the  police 
are  in  absolute  fact  the  Government.  There's  a  good  deal 
that  they  have  to  do  off  their  own  bat,  so  to  speak,  but  they 
don't  blow  about  it.  It's  just  done,  that's  all." 

To  join  the  mounted  police  of  Victoria  l  one  must  be 
between  twenty  and  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  at  least 
5  feet  9  inches  in  height.  A  recruit,  having  passed  the 
medical  officer  and  a  preliminary  riding  test,  has  then  to  be 
approved  by  the  Chief  Commissioner,  after  which,  if  suc- 
cessful, he  is  attached  to  the  Depot  for  a  course  of  instruc- 
tion. The  education  of  a  mounted  policeman  at  the  St. 
Kilda  Road  barracks  in  Melbourne  is  much  the  same  as  that 
received  by  the  New  South  Wales  trooper,  and  need  not  be 
dwelt  upon  in  detail.  He  attends  lectures  on  police  duties, 
while  under  Sub-Inspector  Allcock  2  he  learns  his  mounted 
and  dismounted  drill.  Musketry  and  revolver  practice  is 


1  Up  to  about  1876  men  trained  in  the  Garrison  Artillery  were  mostly 
chosen  for  this  branch  of  the  service.     Alter  that  date  the  range  became 
wider. 

2  Formerly  of   the  17th   (Duke  of  Cambridge's    Own)    Lancers,   and 
instructor  to  the  Rupertswood  Battery  of  Victorian  Horse  Artillery  up  to 
the  time  of  its  disbandment. 

—  244  — 


WITH  THE  VICTORIAN  POLICE 

provided  for  at  the  rifle  ranges  at  Williamstown  or  Ell  wood. 
Swimming  and  life-saving  drill  is  a  compulsory  subject. 
In  the  physical  drill  curriculum  the  art  of  ju-jitsu  is  now 
being  taken  up  by  many  of  the  troopers,  but  this  is  quite 
optional.  Probably  the  future  will  see  this  special  branch 
of  self-defence  become  a  more  important  feature  of  in- 
struction. 

The  uniform  of  the  mounted  policeman  has  undergone 
little  change  from  that  of  the  earlier  period  referred  to  on 
page  234.  Blue  cloth  tunics  and  jumpers,  trousers  of 
similar  material,  riding  breeches  and  high  knee-boots 
of  the  usual  pattern,  are  the  order  of  the  day.  Brown 
dog-skin  gloves  are  worn  by  both  officers  and  men.  The 
helmet  is  of  the  customary  style,  the  white  one  of  light  make 
for  summer  use  being  shown  in  the  illustration  of  Victorian 
troopers  on  another  page. 

In  the  matter  of  pay  the  mounted  man  has  nothing  to 
grumble  at.  The  rate  compares  favourably  with  that,  say, 
of  the  Royal  North- West  Mounted  Police  of  Canada  to 
whom  he  approximates  most  nearly.  Here  is  the  scale  : 
Constables  :  Under  two  years'  service,  65.  Qd.  per  day  ; 
over  two  and  under  four  years,  7s.  ;  over  four  and  under 
six  years,  7s.  Qd.  ;  over  six  and  under  ten  years,  8s.  ; 
over  ten  years,  8s.  Qd.  to  lls.  ;  Senior  Constables,  8s. 
to  9s.  ;  Sergeants  (1st  and  2nd  class),  from  10s.  Qd.  to 
12s.  Qd.  ;  Sub-Inspectors,  £255  per  annum  ;  Inspectors, 
£300  ;  Superintendents,  £375  ;  Inspecting  Superintendents, 
£500.  Pensions  on  a  liberal  scale  are  granted  to  members 
of  the  force  on  retirement.1 

• 

1  Members  of  the  Force  who  were  appointed  before  the  25th  November, 
1902,  are  entitled  to  pensions  or  gratuities  (as  provided  in  Part  3  of  the 
Police  Regulations  Act,  1890)  on  their  retirement  from  the  service.  (Act 

—  245  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

While  unmarried  constables,  and  married  sub-officers 
or  constables  in  charge  of  stations,  are  provided  with  free 
Government  quarters,  an  allowance  of  Qd.  per  day  is  granted 
to  married  men  living  out  of  barracks  in  lieu  of  quarters, 
fuel,  light  and  water.  Inspectors  and  sub-inspectors  receive 
the  generous  sum  of  £70,  and  superintendents  £90,  per 
annum,  in  lieu  of  quarters,  with  free  fuel,  light  and  water. 
So  that,  taken  all  round,  the  lot  of  the  mounted  policeman 
of  Victoria  is  not  the  unhappy  one  sung  of  in  Sir  William 
Gilbert's  ballad.  He  is  a  picked  man,  however,  and  worth 
his  price,  and  the  Australian  citizen  who  contributes  to  his 
maintenance  may  well  be  proud  of  him. 

1127,  as  amended  bjrAct  No.  1412).  Members  of  the  Force  who  were  ap- 
pointed after  the  25th  November,  1 902,  or  who  may  hereafter  be  appointed, 
are  not,  and  will  not  be,  entitled  to  either  pension  or  gratuity  on  retire- 
ment (Act  No.  1798)." —  Victorian  Police  Code. 


—  246  — 


CHAPTER   XIV 

IN   SOUTH   AUSTRALIA 

First  settlement,  1836 — Adelaide  founded — Governor  Hindmarsh — 
Colonel  Gawler — Early  troubles — Sir  George  Grey — Police  Act  of  1839 
— Inspector  Inman — Major  O'Halloran,  first  Commissioner — The 
police  in  1840 — Uniform — Undesirable  immigrants — Jack  Foley 
"  The  black-faced  robbers  " — Cattle-duffers — A  trooper's  hallucina- 
tion— After  aboriginal  murderers — Commissioner  B.  T.  Finniss — Mr 
G.  F.  Dashwood — Mr.  Alexander  Tolmer — Inspector  Alford — Major 
Egerton-Warburton — Later  Commissioners — Consolidating  Police 
Act — Expansion  of  the  colony — Growth  of  the  force — Crime — 
Northern  Territory — Tom  Egan's  fate — Police  of  to-day — Commis- 
sioner W.  H.  Raymond — Distribution — Scrub  and  desert — Varied 
duties— Camels — Training  and  equipment. 

THE  founding  of  the  first  settlement  in  South  Australia 
was  effected  in  1836,  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Edward 
Gibbon  Wakefield,  the  economist.1  In  the  spring  of  that  year 
two  shiploads  of  colonists  left  England,  among  them  being 
Colonel  Light,  holding  the  appointment  of  Surveyor-General. 
His  Excellency  the  Governor,  Captain  (afterwards  Sir)  John 
Hindmarsh,  R.N.,  followed  some  months  later  to  proclaim 
"  His  Majesty's  Province  of  South  Australia." 

From  Hold  Fast  Bay,  where  the  landing  was  made, 
the  settlers  migrated  to  the  spot  on  which  the  present  fine 
city  of  Adelaide  stands.  There  were  dark  days  to  begin  with, 
days  of  privation  and  unremitting  toil.  Everything  was  in 
the  rough.  Huts  of  reeds  had  to  be  hastily  run  up  to  house 
the  population,  but  the  men  and  women  were  of  the  right 

1  See  page  31. 
_  247  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

stamp  and  the  work  of  colonisation  went  steadily,  if  slowly, 
forward.  That  mistakes  were  made  was  not  surprising  to 
those  critics  who  realised  how  ineffectual  ideal  theories 
were  when  put  into  practice.  The  weak  points  in  Wake- 
field's  scheme  evidenced  themselves  before  very  long. 
To  add  to  the  difficulties  of  the  land  question  came  dissen- 
sions between  the  Governor  and  certain  of  the  leading  settlers, 
with  the  result  that  the  finances  of  the  colony  sank  low. 
After  two  years'  troublous  rule  Captain  Hindmarsh  was 
recalled,  and  Colonel  Gawler  appointed  in  his  place.  The 
story  of  the  three  successive  years'  ups  and  downs  is  too 
long  to  be  told  here  :  suffice  it  to  say  that  the  new  Governor 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  home  authorities  by  his 
excessive  expenditure  of  money  on  public  works,  and  that 
he  too  was  called  upon  to  resign. 

At  this  critical  stage  of  affairs  Captain  (afterwards  Sir) 
George  Grey  was  selected  by  the  Colonial  Office  to  restore 
order  out  of  seeming  chaos.  The  right  man  had  now  been 
found  for  the  task.  The  statesmanlike  qualities  which  in 
later  years  found  wider  scope  in  Cape  Colony  and  New 
Zealand  were  displayed  in  a  new  policy  of  retrenchment  and 
reform.  Under  his  skilful  management  the  land  which 
many  had  left  undeveloped  after  the  boom  had  subsided 
was  made  to  yield  profitable  labour,  and  scores  of  settlers 
who  were  thinking  of  quitting  the  colony  for  Victoria  or 
New  South  Wales  remained  to  reap  the  rich  rewards  of  their 
enterprise.  Within  four  years  from  Grey's  arrival  in  1841 
the  population  had  nearly  doubled  itself,  while  the  area  of 
tilled  land  had  risen  from  2,500  to  26,000  acres. 

One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  first  Legislative  Council 
of  the  new  province  was  to  pass  an  ordinance  authorising 
the  formation  of  a  police  force.  This  measure  was  agreed  to 

—  248  — 


A    SOUTH    AUSTRALIAN    MOUNTED    POLICEMAN. 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

in  1839,  Colonel  Gawler  being  Governor.  Owing  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  convict  labour  that  had  been  the  bane  of 
New  South  Wales,  South  Australia  escaped  many  of  the 
initial  trials  of  the  older  settlement.  Unfortunately,  how- 
ever, proper  precautions  were  not  taken  to  supervise  the 
landing  of  immigrants,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  a 
large  number  of  undesirables  found  their  way  into  the  colony. 
Vessels  bound  from  Hobart  and  Melbourne  brought  escaped 
convicts,  ticket-of -leave  men  and  emancipists,  to  sow  the 
seeds  of  crime  in  the  community.  Others  arrived  by  the 
overland  route,  having  joined  stock  parties  in  various 
capacities. 

As  the  colony  grew,  therefore,  the  need  for  police  pro- 
tection became  more  urgent.  In  1838  Mr.  Henry  Inman 
had  been  placed  in  command  of  a  small  body  of  police,  foot 
and  mounted,  with  the  title  of  Inspector.  In  the  following 
year  he  was  given  the  rank  of  Superintendent.  At  this 
period  the  force  numbered  only  three  other  officers,  an 
inspector  of  mounted  police  and  an  inspector  and  sub- 
inspector  of  foot.  Both  of  these  branches  were  badly  in 
need  of  discipline,  and  on  the  dismissal  of  Mr.  Inman,  whose 
conduct  was  unsatisfactory,  the  Board  of  Police  Commis- 
sioners— the  ruling  power — brought  about  drastic  changes. 
The  office  of  Superintendent  was  abolished  :  the  mounted 
and  foot  police  were  regarded  as  two  distinct  forces,  each 
being  entrusted  to  the  command  of  a  separate  inspector  : 
lastly  a  permanent  Commissioner  of  Police  was  appointed 
to  exercise  general  control  over  the  whole  force.  This  chief 
officer  was  also  empowered  to  sit  as  a  magistrate. 

In  June  1840,  the  official  Gazette  announced  the  dis- 
solution of  the  Board  and  the  appointment  of  Major  Thomas 
Shuldham  O'Halloran  as  first  Commissioner.  Inspector 

—  249  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Stuart  was  placed  over  the  Metropolitan  and  Port  police, 
while  Sub-Inspector  Alexander  Tolmer  was  given  command 
of  the  mounted  police  as  Inspector. 

The  new  chief  was  a  retired  army  officer  who  had  seen 
considerable  service  in  India  and  Burma.  On  throwing 
up  his  commission  Major  O'Halloran  emigrated  with  his 
family  to  South  Australia  to  settle  near  Glenelg,  at  a  place 
which  was  named  after  him  O'Halloran  Hill.  Within  a  few 
months  he  was  nominated  a  justice  of  the  Peace,  and  very 
soon  afterwards  was  asked  by  Colonel  Gawler  to  undertake 
the  reconstruction  of  the  police  service.  In  this  direction 
he  was  eminently  successful,  the  force  being  placed  on  a  basis 
that  ensured  its  providing  adequate  support  to  the  little 
colony. 

From  the  published  records  of  Inspector  Tolmer,  who 
was  himself  destined  to  become  Commissioner  in  the  course 
of  time,  we  learn  some  interesting  facts  about  the  mounted 
police  of  those  early  South  Australian  days.  New  barracks 
and  stables  were  prepared  for  the  troopers,  who  up  to  this 
time  had  been  quartered  here  and  there  in  different  public- 
houses  and  private  lodgings. 

"  The  barracks,"  he  says,  "  consisted  of  two  wings, 
each  containing  three  small  rooms,  one  of  which  was  set 
apart  as  a  guard-room,  cook-house  and  mess-room  ;  three 
were  sleeping  apartments  ;  and  the  other  two  (in  the  west 
wing)  were  especially  made  over  to  my  own  use.  The  whole 
structure  was  built  of  pise,1  with  paling  roofs.  The  stables 
extended  from  wing  to  wing,  were  built  of  broad  palings,  and 
afforded  accommodation  for  about  twenty  horses,  with  a 
loft  above  for  hay.  Fronting  the  stables  a  paling  fence 
extended  right  across  the  yard,  with  a  wide  gate  in  the  centre, 

1  Hard  earth  or  clay  rammed  into  mould*. 
— -  250  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

the  whole  forming  a  square.  Subsequently  a  small  brick 
room,  which  was  used  as  an  office,  was  added  to  the  western 
wing." 

The  uniform  of  the  troopers  was  neat  and  effective, 
comprising  a  double-breasted  blue  cloth  jacket  with  white 
buttons,  a  blue  cloth  cap  with  white  band,  and  blue  cloth 
trousers  with  white  piping  down  the  seams.  For  summer 
wear  trousers  of  white  drill  were  substituted.  The  riding 
breeches  were  of  the  usual  cord.  In  addition  to  the  police 
carbine  the  mounted  man  carried  a  sword,  with  black  belt 
and  pouch,  the  regulations  further  ordering  the  use  of  white 
cotton  gloves.  This  outfit,  it  will  be  understood,  was  in  the 
main  "  full  dress  "  such  as  would  be  worn  on  parade ; 
while  on  active  service  some  features  of  it  would  naturally 
be  dispensed  with. 

With  the  constant  arrival  of  all  kinds  of  immigrants,  so 
many  of  whom  belonged  to  the  criminal  class,  the  mounted 
police  were  kept  hard  at  work  hi  their  task  of  supervision.1 
A  large  number  of  the  worst  characters  made  their  home  in 
the  back  district  known  as  "  The  Tiers,"  in  the  deep  thickly- 
timbered  ravines  of  which  they  built  themselves  log  huts. 
It  was  an  ideal  haunt  for  cattle-stealers  and  midnight 
marauders,  the  surrounding  bush  making  it  difficult  to  fol- 
low their  tracks.  Among  those  who  thus  came  into  the 
colony  under  the  protection  of  overland  stock  parties  was 
one  Jack  Foley,  who  affords  the  only  instance,  perhaps,  of  a 
bushranger  turning  policeman.  His  early  career  is  typical 
of  a  hundred  others. 

1  As  illustrative  of  the  character  of  the  criminal  class,  it  may  be  noted 
that  at  the  gaol  delivery  at  Adelaide  on  March  3rd,  1840,  out  of  thirty 
prisoners  only  one  was  convicted  who  had  come  to  the  colony  direct  from 
England.  The  majority  were  ex-convicts  or  escapees  from  the  penal 
settlements. 

—  251  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Foley,  whose  real  name  was  Lovett,  escaped  from  New 
South  Wales  with  two  more  convicts,  all  three  having  been 
sentenced  to  a  "  life  "  term.  His  companions,  Stone  and 
Stanley,  were  ruffians  of  a  worse  stamp  than  Foley  himself, 
and  the  last-named  separated  himself  from  them  on  reach- 
ing South  Australian  soil.  He  had  done  some  bushranging 
before  being  laid  by  the  heels,  but  there  is  no  record  of  his 
having  taken  any  life.  His  particular  line  of  business  was 
horse-stealing,  in  which  he  was  expert.  However,  having 
shaken  off  the  dust  of  New  South  Wales  and,  as  he  hoped, 
blotted  out  his  past,  Foley  struck  out  a  new  line  for  himself. 

The  point  at  which  he  decided  to  stop  was  Encounter 
Bay,  where  a  whaling  station  had  been  formed.  Here  he 
eked  out  an  existence  by  supplying  the  little  community  with 
kangaroo  flesh  and  other  game.  For  a  time  all  seemed  to 
go  well,  then  some  of  his  customers  grew  suspicious  of  this 
solitary  hunter  who  was  reticent  about  his  antecedents,  and 
a  trap  was  laid  for  him.  The  settlement  was  running  short 
of  stores  ;  it  was  necessary  to  send  to  Adelaide  for  supplies. 
Foley  was  now  asked  whether  he  would  mind  acting  as 
messenger.  At  first  he  refused,  fearing  that  the  police  would 
be  furnished  with  the  New  South  Wales  Hue  and  Cry,  and 
that  he  would  be  recognised,  but  on  persuasion  he  consented 
to  go.  A  letter  was  given  him  to  present  to  the  manager  of 
the  Bank  of  South  Australia. 

Arrived  in  the  city  Foley  executed  his  mission.  At 
the  bank  he  was  invited  to  partake  of  a  meal  in  the  kitchen, 
the  manager  meanwhile  acting  on  the  hint  contained  in  the 
letter.  A  little  later  Superintendent  Inman  made  his 
appearance,  strolling  in  casually  and  taking  up  the  visitor's 
double-barrelled  gun  as  if  idly  examining  it.  But  Foley's 
suspicions  were  aroused.  In  a  few  moments  he  made  a  dash 

—  252  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

for  the  door  and  was  on  his  horse  by  the  time  the  officer 
reached  him. 

"  You're  my  prisoner,"  exclaimed  Inman,  who  had 
identified  him  as  an  absconder. 

The  other  made  no  answer,  but  drew  a  pistol  from  his 
belt.  Inman  clutched  at  this  instantly,  his  fingers  closing 
round  the  lock,  the  flint  of  which  cut  them.  This  action, 
however,  prevented  the  weapon's  discharge,  and  Foley 
was  compelled  to  surrender.  In  due  course  he  was  brought 
before  the  Resident  Magistrate,  when  it  was  found  that  the 
Court  had  no  jurisdiction  as  to  offences  committed  out  of 
the  colony.  The  prisoner  was  accordingly  released,  and 
Superintendent  Inman  found  it  no  difficult  matter  to  induce 
him  to  help  in  tracking  the  wanted  men  Stone  and  Stanley. 
Not  long  afterwards  Foley  became  an  auxiliary  member  of 
the  police  force,  in  which  capacity  he  rendered  much  valu- 
able service.  Eventually  he  returned  to  England,  to  end  his 
days  there. 

A  notorious  gang  which  was  broken  up  by  Inspector 
Tolmer  was  that  of  the  "  black-faced  robbers,"  headed  by 
Joseph  Storey.  These  desperadoes  pursued  a  somewhat 
lengthy  career  of  cattle-stealing  in  the  ranges,  their  practice 
of  burning  the  skins  making  it  almost  impossible  to  bring 
any  crime  home  to  them.  After  the  police  had  rendered 
the  game  too  dangerous  the  gang  turned  to  raiding  settlers' 
houses,  wearing  black  masks  for  disguise.  But  it  was  not 
long  before  nemesis  overtook  them.  Sergeant-Ma j or  Alford 
of  the  mounted  police  got  upon  their  track,  and  Storey 
was  arrested  with  several  others.  The  ringleader  was  con- 
demned to  death,  but  this  sentence  was  afterwards  com- 
muted to  transportation  for  life  to  Van  Diemen's  Land. 

In  the  case  of  the  cattle-stealers  (or  "  duffers,"  as  the 
—  253  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

colonial  term  is,)  Brodrip  and  Gofton,  who  flourished  in 
the  Black  Forest  at  this  time,  there  was  a  curious  sequel. 
The  two  men  were  arrested  by  Alford  and  Trooper  Naughton, 
but  Gofton  succeeded  in  making  his  escape.  The  next 
development  was  the  discovery  of  the  latter's  body  in  the 
bush,  where  he  had  been  foully  murdered.  For  this  crime 
another  man,  Stagg,  was  convicted  and  executed,  there  being 
no  doubt  as  to  his  guilt.  However,  some  time  after  Trooper 
Lomas  of  the  mounted  police  made  a  startling  declaration 
to  the  effect  that  he  was  the  actual  murderer.  An  investi- 
gation proved  conclusively  that  the  trooper  was  the  victim 
of  a  hallucination,  and  he  was  acquitted  of  the  charge. 
Lomas  then  left  the  force  and  the  colony,  his  subsequent 
conduct  making  it  clear  that  his  mind  was  permanently 
deranged.  There  was  good  reason  to  believe,  nevertheless, 
that  he  had  been  false  to  his  oath  and  had  acted  in  collusion 
with  the  cattle-duffers.  The  ease  with  which  they  had 
baffled  the  police  was  traceable  to  his  timely  warnings. 

One  of  the  most  notable  of  the  police  hunts  which 
Commissioner  O'Halloran  organised  during  his  command, 
occurred  when  the  crew  and  passengers  of  the  brig  Maria 
were  murdered  by  blacks.  This  was  in  June  1840.  With 
Inspector  Tolmer  and  a  score  of  troopers,  and  a  party  of 
civilian  volunteers,  the  Commissioner  made  a  long  journey 
into  the  country  bordering  on  the  Murray  River.  The 
culprits  were  known  to  belong  to  the  "  Big  Murray  Tribe," 
notorious  for  their  ferocity,  and  the  chase  at  last  ended 
with  the  blacks  being  rounded  up.  Two  natives  were  then 
yielded  into  the  hands  of  the  police  as  the  actual  criminals, 
this  being  in  accordance  with  a  recognised  custom  among 
the  aborigines.  When  a  number  combined  to  commit  a 
murder  the  man  known  to  have  thrown  the  weapon  which 

—  254  ~ 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

caused  the  death  wound  was  regarded  as  the  murderer.  The 
remainder  of  the  tribe  were  considered  to  be  innocent,  de- 
spite the  fact  that  all,  or  most  of  them,  had  been  joyously 
engaged  in  throwing  their  spears  at  the  same  time. 

This  peculiar  tribal  law  was  understood  and  accepted 
by  the  whites.  The  two  prisoners  were  therefore  tried  at  a 
drumhead  court-martial  on  the  spot,  hi  the  presence  of  the 
other  blacks,  and  on  the  folio  whig  day  were  hanged  over  the 
grave  of  their  victims. 

In  1843  Major  O'Halloran  retired  from  the  post  of 
Commissioner  of  Police.  His  successor,  Mr.  Boyle  Travers 
Finniss,  was  one  of  the  pioneer  party  that  had  landed  in  South 
Australia  seven  years  previously,  his  appointment  being 
Assistant  Surveyor  under  Colonel  Light.  Mr.  Finniss,  who 
later  entered  upon  a  distinguished  political  career,1  held 
office  for  nearly  six  years,  giving  place  to  Mr.  G.  F.  Dash- 
wood.  During  the  latter's  reign  Mr.  Tolmer,  promoted  to 
Superintendent  of  the  mounted  police,  acted  temporarily  as 
Commissioner  for  fifteen  months,  and,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
he  succeeded  to  that  high  office  on  Mr.  Dashwood's  re- 
signation in  1852. 

The  next  year  was  marked  by  considerable  confusion 
in  police  administration.  Without  entering  into  contro- 
versial matters,  it  may  be  said  that  bitter  jealousies  existed 
among  the  principal  officers  of  the  force.  Mr.  Tolmer  was 
a  man  of  undoubted  ability,  and  by  his  zealous  work  in  the 
past  had  well  deserved  his  promotion.  He  was,  however, 

1  The  Hon.  B.  T.  Finniss  held  the  appointments  of  Colonial  Treasurer 
and  Registrar-General  in  1846,  becoming  Colonial  Secretary  two  years  later 
under  Governor  Sir  H.  E.  F.  Young.  In  1854  he  administered  affairs  as 
Acting  Governor  until  Sir  R.  G.  MacDonnell  arrived  in  the  colony.  Ten 
years  afterwards  he  headed  the  Government  Survey  party  which  proceeded 
to  the  Northern  Territory,  and  assisted  in  founding  the  first  settlement 
there. 

—  255  — 


somewhat  hot-tempered,  and  his  bearing  to  those  who  served 
under  him  made  him  strong  enemies.  Among  his  chief 
opponents  was  Inspector  Alford,  a  man  with  whom  he  had 
been  associated  closely  in  many  a  case.  Alford,  by  the  way, 
could  boast  of  longer  service  hi  the  force  than  any  of  his 
superiors.  He  had  volunteered  to  act  as  policeman  as 
far  back  as  1837,  in  the  days  before  a  regular  force  had  been 
instituted. 

As  a  result  of  the  charges  preferred  against  Mr.  Tolmer, 
charges  reflecting  seriously  both  on  his  public  and  private 
character,  a  Board  of  Inquiry  recommended  his  removal 
from  office.  With  his  dismissal  from  the  force  which  fol- 
lowed Mr.  Tolmer's  remarkable  career  practically  ended.1 
He  found  it  impossible  to  return  to  the  police  service,  and 
after  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  become  explorer  in  the 
interior  he  accepted  the  minor  position  of  Crown  Lands 
Ranger. 

Senior  Inspector  C.  W.  Stuart  was  Acting-Commissioner 
for  several  months  until  the  appointment  was  offered  to 
Major  Peter  Egerton-Warburton,  whose  exploits  as  an 
explorer  have  been  alluded  to  in  a  previous  chapter.  After 
him  came  Mr.  George  Hamilton  (1867  to  1882),  Mr.  Peters- 
wald  (1882  to  1896),  and  Colonel  L.  G.  Madley  (1896  to 
1909).  With  these  changes  an  important  development  in 
police  administration  has  to  be  chronicled.  Up  to  the  end 
of  Major  Warburton's  tenure  of  office  the  force  continued 
under  the  original  Act  of  1839,  but  under  Commissioner 
Hamilton  the  1869-70  session  of  Parliament  passed  a  new 

1  The  title  of  his  autobiography,  Reminiscences  of  an  Adventurous  and 
Chequered  Career,  is  no  misnomer.  Before  emigrating  to  South  Australia 
he  served  as  a  soldier  of  fortune  in  the  British  Legion  which  espoused  the 
oausa  of  Dom  Pedro  and  Donna  Maria  against  the  usurper  Dom  Miguel  in 
Portugal.  On  returning  to  England  he  enlisted  in  a  cavalry  regiment, 
but  waa  disappointed  in  hia  hope  of  gaining  a  commission. 

—  256  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

Consolidating  Police  Act  which  has  controlled  the  force 
ever  since. 

Within  this  period,  too,  a  notable  expansion  of  the 
colony  had  taken  place.  At  first  the  boundaries  had  been 
defined  to  embrace  an  area  of  nearly  300,000  square  miles, 
"  between  the  132nd  and  141st  degrees  of  east  longitude 
and  between  the  Southern  Ocean  and  the  26th  degree  of 
south  latitude."  In  1861  was  added  a  vast  tract  of  country 
known  as  No  Man's  Land,  situated  between  the  western 
boundary  of  the  province  and  the  eastern  boundary  of 
Western  Australia.  This  extension  covered  80,000  square 
miles.  Two  years  later  there  came  the  important  inclusion 
of  the  Northern  Territory,  which  stretches  northward  from 
the  26th  degree  of  south  latitude  to  the  Indian  Ocean  and 
eastward  from  the  129th  to  the  138th  degree.  From  this 
time,  therefore,  until  the  recent  separation  of  the  Northern 
Territory,  South  Australia  boasted  of  a  total  area  of  over 
900,000  square  miles. 

To  cope  with  the  additional  work  entailed  by  increase 
of  population  and  territorial  expansion  it  was,  of  course, 
necessary  to  raise  the  strength  of  the  police  force.  From  an 
official  return  of  1851  we  find  the  number  of  officers  and  men 
given  as  134,  the  expenditure  being  £12,770  19s.  In  1855 
there  were  252,  including  45  black  trackers,  and  the  cost  to 
the  State  had  nearly  quadrupled  itself.  Under  Major 
Warburton  a  reduction  in  numbers  to  176  men  took  place, 
with  a  consequent  decrease  in  expenditure,  and  at  this  low 
strength  the  force  remained  for  several  years.  In  1872 
twelve  more  men  were  added  to  the  ranks.  The  next  six 
years  saw  further  increases,  until  in  1878  the  number  em- 
ployed was  307.  In  1884  the  figures  were  438,  by  this  time 
the  cost  having  amounted  to  £98,  594  185.  Qd.  The  disparity 

—  257  —  s 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

between  this  expenditure  and  that  of  1861  is  partly  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  increase  in  the  rate  of  pay.  In  the 
earlier  days  a  trooper  received  3s.  Id.  per  day  ;  in  less  than 
thirty  years  the  minimum  wage  was  raised  to  7s.  Qd. 

While,  in  comparison  with  New  South  Wales  and 
Victoria,  South  Australia  has  enjoyed  remarkable  im- 
munity from  bushranging — there  have  been  no  desperadoes 
of  the  Morgan  and  Kelly  type — it  has  had  its  own  eras  of 
crime.  During  the  first  twenty-five  years  of  its  existence 
horse-stealing  and  cattle-duffing  were  prevalent  in  the 
colony,  but  the  energetic  measures  of  the  mounted  police 
were  successful  in  stamp  ing  these  out.  We  have  dealt  with 
some  notable  cases  in  the  present  chapter.  In  later  years, 
particularly  since  the  acquisition  of  the  Northern  Territory, 
the  main  troubles  have  been  with  the  aborigines.  To  nar- 
rate one  instance  of  this  latter  kind  is  enough  to  show  what 
has  to  be  contended  with.  The  story  is  almost  invariably 
the  same.  A  prospector,  or  other  solitary  white,  falls  in 
with  a  party  of  blacks.  He  has  provisions,  or  weapons,  or 
other  articles  of  value  in  the  native  estimation,  and  an  early 
opportunity  is  found  to  murder  him.  Then  the  tragedy 
becomes  a  dread  secret  of  the  bush  until  native  gossip  or 
some  chance  discovery  of  his  remains  brings  the  matter  into 
the  light  of  day. 

It  was  so  with  poor  Tom  Egan,  prospector,  who  was 
speared  by  a  black  at  the  Robinson  River  in  the  far  north 
in  May  1909.  Egan  was  presumably  travelling  in  the 
direction  of  Borroloola,  when  he  lost  his  way.  On  the  east 
bank  of  the  river  he  encountered  Pupelee,  aboriginal,  in 
company  with  the  latter's  lubra  (wife),  three  children,  and 
another  woman.  At  first  the  blacks  appeared  to  be  friendly, 
giving  the  unfortunate  man  some  food  and  acceding  to  his 

—  258  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

request  that  they  should  guide  him  to  the  township.  But 
during  the  evening,  while  the  party  camped  and  Egan  set 
about  making  his  billy  boil  on  the  fire,  Pupelee  seized  his 
stone-headed  spears  and  plunged  them  into  his  victim's  side. 
The  body  was  afterwards  thrown  into  the  river.  Then 
Pupelee,  having  appropriated  such  of  the  dead  man's  be- 
longings as  he  coveted,  went  on  trek  again  with  his  family 
until  R.  Stott,  Mounted  Constable  of  Borroloola,  brought 
him  to  justice. 

The  story  of  police  work  in  the  Northern  Territory 
demands  a  chapter  to  itself,  for  it  is  there  that  the  most 
arduous  work  of  the  Australian  trooper  policeman  is  en- 
countered. It  is  time  now  to  consider  the  South  Australian 
force  as  it  is  to-day,  under  the  able  control  of  Commissioner 
W.  H.  Raymond,  who  succeeded  Colonel  Madley  in  January 
1910.  Like  so  many  other  officers,  the  present  Chief  rose 
to  his  position  from  the  ranks,  having  passed  through 
all  grades.  He  joined  the  force  in  1865,  and  has  thus  seen 
forty-six  years  of  service. 

From  the  most  recent  Report  we  learn  that  the  total 
strength  of  the  force  is  421,  a  number  which  cannot  lead  any 
one  to  say  that  the  State  is  over-policed.1  In  1885  the 
figure  stood  at  438,  and  since  that  date  the  population  has 
increased  by  over  108,000.  The  mounted  branch,  exclusive 
of  those  on  service  in  the  far  north,  accounts  for  168  officers 
and  men,  with  whom  there  are  eighteen  black  trackers. 
This  little  force,  only  four  hundred  odd  strong,  is  distributed 
over  the  following  six  divisions,  the  headquarters  being 
given  in  brackets  : — Metropolitan  (Adelaide),  Central 

1  The  total  expenditure  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1910,  exclusive 
of  the  Northern  Territory,  was  £88,936,  showing  an  average  cost  per  head 
of  the  population  of  a  little  over  4».  3Jd. 

—  259  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


Division  (Adelaide),  South-Eastern  (Mount  Gambier), 
Northern  (Port  Pirie),  Far  Northern  (Port  Augusta),  and 
Northern  Territory  (Palmerston).  Each  of  these  divisions 
is  in  charge  of  an  Inspector,  for  the  rank  of  Superintendent 
is  no  longer  recognised  ;  and  below  that  officer  are  Sub- 
Inspectors  who  have  command  of  separate  stations.1 

It  is  naturally  outside  the  Metropolitan  area  that  the 
trooper  police  are  mostly  employed.  You  will  find  them  at 
home  in  the  salt-bush  country,  in  the  scrub  ;  you  will 
meet  them  by  lake  and  river,  by  forest  camp  fire  and  in  the 
shearers'  huts.  And  you  will  meet  them,  further,  on  horse 
and  camel  in  the  desolate  wastes  of  the  great  stony  deserts. 
The  scrub  land  of  South  Australia  must  be  seen  to  be  appre- 
ciated. There  is  nothing  quite  like  it  in  any  of  the  Eastern 
States.  Extending  principally  over  the  north  and  eastern 
parts  of  the  province,  it  takes  the  form  of  long  stretches  of 
barren  arid  plains,  the  soil — always  of  poor  description — 
varying  from  clay  to  pure  sand.  It  is  largely  rocky  and  is 
destitute  of  water.  What  vegetation  manages  to  thrive  is 

1  STRENGTH  OF  POLICE  FORCE  OF  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA  ON  JUNE  30,  1910. 


e 

I 

^5 

g 

c 

,o 

1 

P« 

3 

"8 

eg 

S 

2 

o 

| 

1 

C 

« 

_» 

I 

a 

K 

X> 

p 

o. 

3 

a 

S 

X 

a 

1 
o 

a 

h-l 

W 

8 

03 

a 

N 

» 

S 

n 

Metropolitan  Police  . 
Mounted  Police    . 

1 

1 
1 

3 

12 

6 

6 
9 

- 

174 
148 

1 

18 

48 

250 

Detective  Police  . 

— 



1 

2 

— 



10 

— 

— 

11 

— 

Foot  Police  in  country 

divisions 

— 



— 

— 

— 



25 

— 

— 

8 

— 

Port  and  Water  Police 

— 



1 

— 

2 



18 

— 

— 

2 

— 

Total    .... 

1 

2 

5 

20 

17 

1 

375 

1 

18 

69 

250 

Northern  Territory    . 

— 

— 

1 

— 

1 



17 

— 

15 

— 

136 

Grand  total     . 

1 

2 

6 

20 

IS 

1 

392 

1 

33 

69 

386 

—  260  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

of  a  stunted  character,  spinifex  growing  in  tufts,  kangaroo 
grass,  and  a  variety  of  small  shrubs.  Looking  out  across 
an  expanse  of  this  country,  as  in  the  Murray  region,  one  is 
struck  by  its  dead  monotony.  Except  where  any  clump  of 
trees  is  to  be  seen,  the  scrub  is  of  a  level  height  of  a  few  feet, 
and  of  a  uniform  bluish-green  colour.  It  is  monotonous 
and  depressing  to  the  eye,  and  yet  in  its  seasons  it  has 
a  charm  of  its  own.  Many  of  the  shrubs  bear  flowers  of 
delicate  beauty,  while  the  rainy  months  bring  into  being 
thousands  of  terrestrial  orchids  that  give  an  added  touch  of 
brightness. 

That  portion  known  as  the  Mallee  scrub  is  clothed  with 
dwarf  species  of  eucalyptus,  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  in  height 
and  thickly  studded  together.  These  willow-like  trees  have 
no  branches  and  are  of  a  dark  brown  colour.  The  area 
sometimes  covered  by  them  in  an  unbroken  mass,  is  two 
or  three  thousand  miles  in  extent.  Hardly  less  formidable 
is  the  Mulga  scrub,  which  consists  of  small  acacias,  grey 
bushy  plants  of  varying  size  and  height  and  possessing 
spiny  branches.  One  meets  with  this  type  of  country  in 
several  part's  of  South  Australia  and  in  the  Coolgardie  gold- 
fields  district  of  Western  Australia. 

Where  the  salt-bush  grows  the  stockman  finds  good 
pastoral  country.  This  shrub,  which  is  most  plentiful  in 
the  northern  districts,  withstands  the  intense  heat  of  the 
summer  sun  when  all  else  round  it  is  parched  and  withered. 
On  its  ever-fresh  leaves  the  sheep  can  feed  and  maintain  an 
existence  through  a  period  of  drought. 

The  scrub  land  is  to  be  avoided,  for  it  is  easy  for  the 
traveller  to  lose  his  way  therein  and  perish  miserably  for 
want  of  water.  But  more  terrible  is  the  region  of  the  stony 
deserts  in  the  interior.  Here  the  sun  beats  down  merci- 

—  261  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

lessly  and  makes  the  rough  ground  so  hot  to  the  feet  as  to 
be  unbearable.  So  Sturt,  the  explorer,  found  it  on  that 
memorable  journey  of  his  in  1845.  All  the  water-holes  had 
dried  up,  the  horses  were  in  a  constant  perspiration,  and  the 
stirrup-irons  burnt  their  riders'  boots.  "  The  ground," 
says  Sturt  in  his  journal,  "  was  thoroughly  heated  to  the 
depth  of  three  or  four  feet,  and  the  tremendous  heat  that 
prevailed  had  parched  the  vegetation  and  drawn  moisture 
from  everything.  The  mean  of  the  thermometer  for  the 
months  of  December,  January,  and  February  had  been 
101°,  104°,  and  101°  respectively  hi  the  shade.  Under  its 
effects  every  screw  in  our  boxes  had  been  drawn,  and  the 
horn  handles  of  our  instruments,  as  well  as  our  combs,  were 
split  into  fine  laminae.  The  lead  dropped  out  of  our  pencils, 
our  signal  rockets  were  entirely  spoiled,  our  hair,  as  well  as 
the  wool  on  the  sheep,  ceased  to  grow,  and  our  nails  had 
become  as  brittle  as  glass.  The  flour  lost  more  than  eight 
per  cent,  of  its  original  weight,  and  the  other  provisions  in 
a  still  greater  proportion.  The  bran  in  which  our  bacon  had 
been  packed  was  perfectly  saturated,  and  weighed  almost 
as  heavy  as  the  meat ;  we  were  obliged  to  bury  our  wax 
candles,  a  bottle  of  citric  acid  became  fluid  and,  escaping, 
burnt  a  quantity  of  linen  ;  and  we  found  it  difficult  to  write 
or  draw,  so  rapidly  did  the  fluid  dry  in  our  pens  and  brushes." 
As  it  was  then,  so  is  it  now.  Central  Australia  in  many 
parts  offers  no  attractions  to  the  settler.  But  into  this  un- 
inviting wilderness  of  scrub,  sand  and  rock,  the  trooper 
policeman  must  venture  at  the  call  of  duty.  We  who  live 
for  the  most  part  in  settled  districts,  with  all  the  accom- 
paniments of  civilisation,  can  have  little  idea  of  what  life  is 
like  amid  such  surroundings.  Now  and  then  the  story  of  a 
trooper's  bravery  in  handling  a  mob  of  turbulent  blacks 

—  262  — 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

comes  down  to  the  settlements  and  finds  a  note  in  the  news- 
papers. Now  and  then  one  hears  of  a  plucky  dash  into 
the  desert  to  rescue  some  lost  traveller  from  the  terrors  of 
death  by  thirst  and  starvation.  But  how  many  hundreds  of 
unrecorded  acts  of  heroism  have  there  been,  all  equally 
deserving  of  commemoration  ?  Only  the  bushman,  perhaps, 
can  tell,  but  he  is  a  notoriously  silent  person.  And  from 
the  lips  of  the  police  themselves  you  will  learn  little. 

If  we  read  the  Police  Manual  we  find  that  "  the  duties  and 
powers  of  a  mounted  constable  differ  in  no  respect  from  those 
of  an  ordinary  police  constable,"  but  the  reality  is  far  from 
the  case.  No  doubt  it  was  originally  intended  to  be  so, 
both  in  South  Australia  and  other  States.  The  development 
of  the  country,  however,  and  the  exigencies  of  the  service 
under  an  economical  government,  have  made  this  rule  much 
"  honoured  in  the  breach."  To-day  the  mounted  policeman 
has  to  perform  duties  of  a  multifarious  character.  He  may 
be  called  upon  to  act  as  bailiff,  Crown  Lands  Ranger,  assist- 
ant Inspector  of  Schools  (making  sure  that  all  the  children 
in  his  particular  neighbourhood  are  sent  to  school),  issuer 
of  mining  and  other  licences,  and  registrar  in  several 
capacities  ;  while — and  this  does  not  exhaust  the  list,  by  any 
means — he  is  expected  to  collect  jury  lists  for  the  Sheriff 
and  agricultural  statistics  for  the  Under  Secretary  of  State, 
to  take  note  of  cases  of  destitution  and  report  to  the  Destitute 
Board  accordingly,  to  destroy  vermin  and  give  certificates 
to  scalp-hunters. 

These  are  the  extraneous  duties,  mostly.  As  policeman, 
the  sole  representative,  maybe,  of  the  law  in  his  district,  he 
has  plenty  of  ordinary  work  to  get  through.  When  in  charge 
of  a  station  he  must  patrol  the  country  around  his  post  and 
keep  a  daily  journal  of  all  transactions  ;  he  must  acquaint 

—  263  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

himself  with  the  people  and  the  physical  character  of  the 
district ;  he  must  watch  and  report  upon  suspicious  persons  ; 
in  many  cases  besides  making  arrests  he  must  act  as  Crown 
Prosecutor.  Your  trooper  of  the  back-blocks,  then,  must 
needs  be  a  man  of  resource  and  aptitude,  of  firm  resolve  and 
quick  decision.  Not  only  has  he  white  settlers  to  look  after, 
but  those  far  more  difficult  children  of  nature,  the  blacks. 
In  drawing  a  comparison  between  the  Canadian  North- 
West  Mounted  trooper  and  his  Australian  brother  in  this 
respect,  there  is  no  question  but  that  the  latter  has  the 
harder  task  to  perform.  The  North  American  Indian, 
with  his  "  reservation  "  and  store  clothes,  is  a  child  of  peace,  a 
Sunday  School  scholar,  compared  to  the  uncivilised,  or  only 
half -civilised,  aboriginal  of  the  Southern  Continent.  Through- 
out the  vast  interior  the  blacks  are  constantly  on  the  move 
in  scattered  tribes  or  parties,  living  from  hand  to  mouth 
and,  except  in  a  few  instances,  scorning  the  protection  and 
help  of  the  Government.  Among  these  nomads  there  is 
incessant  warfare.  One  tribe  spears  another  almost  as  a 
matter  of  duty,  and  certainly  with  keen  enjoyment,  these 
raids  being  varied  at  intervals  by  cattle-killing. 

For  work  in  the  central  parts  of  South  Australia  the 
camel  has  become  an  all-important  feature.  On  the  great 
inland  plains,  so  largely  covered  with  spinifex,  the  horse  was 
at  first  superseded  by  the  bullock,  but  this  useful  draught 
animal  made  slow  progress  in  the  course  of  a  day's  journey. 
Ten  miles  a  day  is  said  to  be  a  fair  average  for  a  bullock 
team.  The  camel,  on  the  other  hand,  is  capable  of  doing 
eighty-four  miles  in  eighteen  hours,  with  a  load  of  three  hun- 
dred pounds  on  his  back,  and  he  possesses  a  remarkable 
ability  to  do  without  water  for  a  lengthened  period.  He  can 
find  his  own  living  wherever  he  may  be.  It  will  be  under- 

—  264  — 


PISTOL-CARBINE    USED    BY    THE    SOUTH    AUSTRALIAN    MOUNTED    POLICE. 
Showing  adjustable  stock  affixed  and  detached. 


IN  SOUTH  AUSTRALIA 

stood,  therefore,  how  settlers  were  ready  to  give  a  welcome 
to  the  ship  of  the  desert  when  the  experiment  of  importa- 
tion was  made. 

As  we  have  seen,  camels  were  used  in  the  Burke  and 
Wills  exploring  expedition  of  1860.  They  were  not  brought 
into  South  Australia,  however,  in  any  numbers  until  1866, 
when  Sir  Thomas  Elder  landed  109  animals  with  a  view  to 
establishing  a  herd.  After  some  ups  and  downs,  owing  to 
diseases  which  it  took  some  time  to  stamp  out,  these  became 
acclimatised  and  throve  satisfactorily.  Eventually  the  in- 
habitants of  the  outlying  districts  came  to  appreciate  the 
great  value  of  the  camel,  and  more  had  to  be  imported. 
In  1884  there  was  a  shipment  of  661,  since  when  the  demand 
has  been  met  largely  by  home-bred  animals.  In  the  mounted 
police  service  the  camel  has  played  an  important  part. 
Commissioner  Peterswald  first  recognised  the  difficulties 
confronting  the  troopers  stationed  far  to  the  north,  and  it 
was  at  his  instance  that  a  police  camel  depot  was  established 
at  Beltana.  For  hunting  down  criminals,  as  well  as  for  other 
work  entailing  long  journeys  inland,  these  animals  have 
been  used  extensively.  A  trooper  on  camel-back  is  a 
familiar  sight  in  many  portions  of  the  interior. 

In  the  matter  of  training  the  South  Australian  force 
follows  very  much  the  same  system  as  is  in  vogue  in  New 
South  Wales  and  Victoria.  The  recruit  for  the  mounted 
branch  is  taught  riding  and  the  use  of  arms,  and  is  put 
through  a  semi-military  course  that  turns  him  out  a  thor- 
oughly efficient  unit.  At  the  Adelaide  depot  the  mounted 
men  are  under  the  care  of  Sub-Inspector  Orr,  an  officer 
whose  forty-two  years  of  service  include  a  long  term  in  the 
Northern  Territory.  Another  instructor,  and  one  of  whom 
the  public  probably  know  much  less,  is  Shimna,  a  champion 

-265  - 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

wrestler  from  Japan.  This  individual  gives  special  lessons 
in  the  art  of  ju-jitsu.  Although  it  is  not  compulsory,  the 
majority  of  the  troopers  avail  themselves  of  his  teaching. 

For  many  years  past  the  principal  arm  of  the  mounted 
police  has  been  the  Smith  and  Wesson  revolver-carbine 
with  detachable  stock,  enabling  it  to  [be  used  either  as 
revolver  or  carbine.  This  is  a  trustworthy,  far-reaching 
weapon,  but  it  is  likely  to  be  superseded  ere  long  by  one  of 
lighter  make.  Except  for  bush  work,  swords  are  still  worn, 
the  touch  of  smartness  which  they  give  being  a  point  that  is 
not  overlooked. 

The  uniform  of  the  troopers  has  been  a  matter  of  par- 
ticular consideration  to  several  Commissioners.  The  State 
likes  to  see  its  men  turned  out  in  a  soldier-like  fashion. 
After  the  eighties  light-fitting  riding  breeches  of  Bedford 
cord  took  the  place  of  the  old-time  trousers,  and  riding-boots 
were  introduced.  The  old  glazed  peaked  cap  in  time  was 
superseded  by  a  light  pith  helmet,  white  in  summer  and  blue 
in  winter.  Of  late  years  a  peaked  cap  with  a  white  band 
has  been  'more  popular  for  winter  wear.  The  tunic  still 
remains  of  blue  cloth,  bringing  it  into  line  with  the  general 
uniform  adopted  in  other  States. 

Lastly,  a  word  as  to  pay.  Starting  at  Is.  6d.  per  day,  a 
mounted  constable  of  the  third  class  rises  to  a  wage  of  8s.  Gd. 
Senior  constables  receive  9s.,  corporals  9s.  6d.,  and  ser- 
geants 105.  6d.  From  the  Police  Fund,  which  was  established 
some  years  back,  pensions  are  provided  for  those  who  retire 
after  a  certain  term  of  service,  while  a  portion  of  it  is  devoted 
to  rewards  for  meritorious  acts. 


—  266  — 

• 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE    NORTHERN   TERRITORY 

Early  history — Exploration  —  McDouall  Stuart  —  Annexation  —  Port 
Darwin  founded — Mounted  police — Criminal  elements — Trooper 
Donegan — Bogus  Customs  officers — Borroloola — Shanty-keepers — 
Burnt  out — The  Territory  to-day — Native  question — A  back-blocks 
tragedy — Troopers  Holland  and  Dempsey — Sub-Inspector  Waters — 
Inspector  Foelsche — The  northern  black — A  startling  experience 
— Out  on  patrol — The  brighter  side — The  new  province. 

FOR  forty-seven  years  South  Australia  has  administered 
the  vast  tract  of  the  continent  known  as  the  Northern 
Territory.  Its  history  briefly  is  as  follows.  In  the  early 
years  of  the  last  century  military  settlements  were  formed 
at  Melville  Island  and  later  at  Port  Essington,  but  these 
were  eventually  abandoned.  For  a  long  time  the  region 
remained  practically  a  sealed  book  to  the  world.  Then 
came  the  explorers  Leichhardt,  Gregory  and  Stuart,  working 
their  way  northward  from  the  south  and  east,  and  bit  by 
bit  the  nature  of  the  country  between  Central  Australia  and 
the  northern  ocean  became  known.  To  John  McDouall 
Stuart,  who  crossed  the  continent  from  Adelaide  to  Adams 
Bay  in  1862,  belongs  the  credit  of  opening  up  this  immense 
and  valuable  area.  He  recognised  its  possibilities  of  develop- 
ment, its  rich  natural  resources,  and  it  was  his  advocacy  that 
induced  the  South  Australian  Government  in  1863  to 
formally  annex  it.  Since  that  date,  until  last  year,  it  has 

—  267  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

been  controlled  from  Adelaide,  with  a  Resident  whose  head- 
quarters have  been  at  Port  Darwin. 

The  first  attempt  at  settlement  after  annexation  was 
projected  hi  1864,  when  the  Government  disposed  of  a 
considerable  quantity  of  land  and  sent  Mr.  B.  T.  Finniss  to 
the  Territory  to  superintend  the  surveying.  Mr.  Finniss 
proved  unsuccessful  in  his  object,  the  spot  he  chose  for 
headquarters  being  objected  to  by  the  landowners.  Conse- 
quently he  was  recalled  and  the  work  was  left  to  Mr.  G.  W. 
Goyder,  the  Survey  or- General  of  the  colony.  The  latter 
gentleman  selected  Port  Darwin  and  its  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood as  the  base  of  operations,  and  the  wisdom  of  his 
choice  was  evidenced  by  the  flourishing  state  of  the  com- 
munity that  in  time  gathered  there. 

With  the  settlers  went  the  trooper  police  to  take  their 
share  of  the  pioneer  work.  Particularly  were  they  needed, 
as  has  been  said,  to  keep  in  check  the  native  tribes,  who 
were  only  too  ready  to  resent  this  fresh  intrusion  of  whites. 
The  blacks  of  the  far  north  retain  more  of  their  pristine 
savagery  than  their  brothers  of  the  south.  To  the  mounted 
constables,  therefore,  has  fallen  no  light  task  in  preserving 
the  Pax  Britannica  in  this  wild  region.  It  was  the  police 
who  helped  materially  to  carry  the  great  overland  telegraph 
across  the  interior  from  Adelaide  to  Port  Darwin  in  1870-2. 
The  wires  and  poles  were  not  tampered  with  for  good 
reason,1  but  the  operators  at  the  stations  were  frequently 
attacked,  and  many  an  exciting  chase  after  the  culprits  fell 
to  the  troopers'  lot. 

The  blacks,  however,  were  not  alone  in  making  work 

1  As  a  precaution  against  any  meddling  on  the  part  of  the  natives 
the  telegraph  men  gave  many  of  them  electric  shocks  from  the  wires. 
This  alarmed  the  blacks  beyond  measure,  and  the  "  whitefellow's  devil  " 
was  held  in  such  awe  far  and  wide  that  no  one  dared  touch  the  wires. 

—  268  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

for  the  mounted  police  in  the  early  days.  In  the  country 
were  already  the  brumby  hunters,  men  who  rounded  up  the 
wild  horses  of  the  ranges  and  herded  them  into  Queensland, 
where  there  was  a  market  for  the  animals.  The  hunters 
were  usually  a  rough  class,  and  many — very  many — of  them 
took  to  cattle-duffing.  Their  ways  and  wiles  will  be  dealt 
with  in  a  separate  chapter,  and  need  not  detain  us  here. 
In  addition  were  hundreds  of  illicit  grog-sellers,  among  the 
slimmest  of  law-breakers.  These  two  classes  of  criminals 
provided  a  large  share  of  the  excitement  incident  to  life  in 
the  wilds,  and  the  police  never  had  to  complain  of  being  idle. 

Mr.  Alfred  Searcey,  who  for  fourteen  years  acted  as 
Sub-Collector  of  Customs  at  Port  Darwin,  tells  in  his  book  1 
of  the  trials  and  troubles  of  some  of  the  mounted  men. 
Trooper  Donegan,  a  big  Irishman  and  the  first  policeman 
to  be  stationed  at  Borroloola,  had  a  long  and  full  experience. 
Here  is  a  sample  : — 

"  The  outlaws  had  a  playful  habit  of  making  off  with  the 
police  horses.  On  one  occasion  Donegan  and  his  trackers 
had  to  follow  them  a  hundred  miles  before  they  recovered  the 
horses.  One  day  two  Chinamen  turned  up  at  the  M' Arthur 
police-station,  and  reported  that  they  had  been  stopped  at 
the  Robinson  River  by  three  men  who  said  they  were 
Customs  officers,  and  who  collected  £20  a  head  poll-tax. 
Donegan  and  his  mate  Curtis,  with  a  tracker  and  one  of 
the  victims,  left  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  self-appointed  officers. 
On  arrival  at  the  shanty  the  police  party  were  received  by 
twelve  armed  men,  who  threatened  bloodshed  if  they  were 
interfered  with.  Two  of  the  men  the  Chinaman  recognised. 
At  a  sign  from  Donegan,  his  mate  and  the  Chinaman  jumped 
behind  trees  and  covered  the  crowd  with  their  rifles.  Done- 

1  In  Australian  Tropics. 
—  269  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

gan  sang  out,  '  Shoot  the  first  man  that  moves  !  '  With 
that  he  and  the  tracker  walked  up  to  the  crowd,  revolvers 
in  hand,  disarmed  the  two  men  identified,  and  handcuffed 
them.  He  and  his  tracker  then  retired  with  their  prisoners 
some  hundred  yards  behind  Curtis  and  the  Chinaman. 
Donegan  and  the  tracker  then  covered  the  crowd,  while 
Curtis  and  the  Celestial  retired.  This  they  continued  to  do 
until  some  distance  away.  Having  spare  horses,  the 
prisoners  were  mounted.  A  chain  was  passed  round  the 
horses'  necks  and  then  padlocked  to  the  prisoners.  The 
men  in  due  course  were  punished. 

"  The  other  Customs  officer  (?)  it  was  found  out  was  an 
out-and-out  scoundrel  named  Monaghan.  Some  time 
afterwards  this  man  was  arrested  at  Corrella  Downs  Station 
for  horse-stealing.  A  trooper  named  Smith  had  to  escort 
him  to  the  M' Arthur.  When  getting  ready  to  shift  from 
their  camp  one  morning,  and  while  Smith  was  rolling  up 
his  swag,  the  tracker  at  the  time  being  after  the  horses, 
Monaghan  hit  Smith  over  the  head  with  a  stick  and 
stunned  him.  He  then  bound  him  to  a  tree  and  shot  the 
black  tracker  dead  when  he  came  in  with  the  horses.  This 
fair  specimen  of  the  outlaws  knocking  about  the  country  at 
this  time  then  made  off  with  horses,  arms,  and  camp  fixings. 
He  has  never  been  heard  of  since." 

Before  a  magistrate  and  a  few  police  were  sent  up  to 
Borroloola  the  district  round  that  settlement  had  an  unen- 
viable reputation.  It  was  the  haunt,  or  rather  sanctuary, 
for  which  criminals  made  from  all  parts  of  Australia.  Queens- 
landers  from  over  the  border  found  it  a  useful  hiding-place. 
The  owner  of  a  store  might  reckon  on  a  lively  time  if  he 
managed  to  fall  foul  of  one  of  these  ruffians.  One  such,  it  is 
said,  gave  offence  to  a  certain  gang,  so  they  coolly  stood  off 

—  270  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

a  few  yards  and  emptied  their  Winchesters  into  the  building, 
quite  regardless  of  the  fact  that  the  proprietor  was  inside  ! 
He  only  escaped  death  by  crouching  low  behind  a  big  gal- 
vanised iron  case. 

Much  of  the  population  of  the  northern  districts  was  of  a 
floating  character.  Cattlemen,  shearers,  and  station  hands 
of  all  sorts,  came  and  went,  bringing  with  them  often,  fat 
cheques  and  leaving  the  bulk,  if  not  all,  behind  them  with 
the  shanty-keepers.  These  hawks  were  ever  on  the  look- 
out for  their  prey,  and  had  many  devices  to  wheedle  the 
money  out  of  their  customers'  pockets.  "  They  were  a 
terrible  curse,"  says  Mr.  Searcey,  "  not  alone  to  the  poor 
bushmen,  but  to  the  squatters  in  whose  country  they  settled, 
for  they  were  the  means  of  drawing  numbers  of  cattle  and 
horse  thieves  about  the  place.  I  knew  the  owner  of  a  station 
who  was  thus  afflicted.  He  tried  many  means  of  getting  rid 
of  the  shanty-man  and  his  wife — a  bad  lot,  the  pair,  regular 
outlaws — but  failed.  As  a  last  resource  he  put  a  fire-stick 
into  the  tent  and  brush  buildings,  the  whole  lot  being 
burned  with  the  stock  of  spirits  and  ale." 

Itinerant  grog-shops,  run  by  men  who  possessed  vans 
and  horses,  sometimes  took  the  place  of  these  liquor-dens. 
They  were  similarly  stocked  with  illicit  spirits.  But  the 
hand  of  the  police  was  hard  upon  offenders,  and  the  day  of 
their  rejoicing  is  past.  The  Territory  has  been  pretty  well 
cleared  of  these  gentry.  There  is  still,  of  course,  the  bush 
pub.,  which  is  a  licensed  house  but  which  so  often  retails 
the  vilest  liquor,  so  the  station  hand  can  "  blue  "  his  cheque  as 
joyously  as  he  ever  did  in  olden  time,  and  as  he  doubtless 
will  continue  to  do. 

Of  the  Northern  Territory  at  the  present  day  from  a 
police  point  of  view,  we  have  a  glimpse  in  a  succinct  report 

—  271  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

submitted  by  Sub-Inspector  Waters,  the  officer  in  charge.  He 
says  :  "  The  return  shows  a  decrease  of  79  in  offences 
reported  and  66  in  persons  arrested,  the  principal  decreases 
being  assaults,  gambling,  supplying  opium  to  aborigines,  etc. 
The  natives  in  the  Victoria  River  district  have  been  unusually 
active  in  committing  depredations,  and  it  will  require  more 
than  ordinary  activity  on  the  part  of  the  police  to  keep 
them  in  order.  It  is  only  in  rare  instances  that  offenders 
have  been  brought  to  justice,  and  complainants  frequently 
decline  to  prosecute,  even  when  an  attempt  is  made  to 
murder,  in  consequence  of  enormous  distance  to  a  court  of 
justice  ;  and  should  the  suggested  appointment  of  justices 
in  that  district  be  approved  I  recommend  that  a  police 
prison  be  established  at  Timber  Creek,  to  avoid  the  travelling 
of  prisoners  a  distance  of  450  miles  to  Palmerston.  The 
lack  of  mail  and  telegraphic  communication  with  that  district 
tends  to  the  commission  of  crime,  as  persons  aggrieved  will 
not  travel  such  a  distance  to  report.  The  coast  natives 
from  Queensland  border  to  King  River  and  Cape  Ford  to  the 
West  Australian  border  are  very  treacherous  and  speak 
no  English,  and  for  the  better  protection  of  persons  whose 
business  is  there  the  coast  should  occasionally  be  visited  by 
police,  but  at  present  no  boat  is  available.  Natives  are,  with 
but  few  exceptions,  well  treated  by  their  employers,  but  for 
their  general  protection  it  is  sincerely  hoped  that  a  workable 
Aborigines  Act  will  be  passed.  I  need  hardly  point  out  that 
the  conditions  of  natives  in  the  Territory  is  very  different 
to  those  in  the  South  ;  consequently  I  submit  the  law  for  this 
part  of  the  State  should  be  framed  to  meet  the  different 
conditions.  There  are  many  old  and  indigent  Chinese  in  the 
Territory  who  subsist  as  best  they  can,  and  but  few  crimes 
have  been  committed  by  them." 

—  272  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

The  native  question  is  still  a  great  problem  in  the  north, 
although  the  number  of  the  blacks  is  not  excessively  large. 
Human  life  is  held  cheaply  by  the  aboriginal  when  the  taking 
of  it  helps  him  to  some  of  this  world's  goods.  It  is  not  so  long 
back  that  a  couple  of  bushmen  were  murdered  by  blacks 
simply  for  the  iron  rims  upon  the  wheels  of  their  van.  As 
elsewhere  in  the  back-blocks  of  Australia,  too,  the  lonely 
selector  must  be  on  his  guard  against  treachery,  for  even  his 
own  native  servants  are  not  always  to  be  trusted.  Witness 
the  melancholy  case  of  W.  J.  J.  Ward,  done  to  death  on  the 
Humbert  River  early  last  year.  The  reports  of  this  tragedy, 
as  sent  in  by  the  trooper  who  investigated  it,  make  interest- 
ing reading,  in  that  they  convey  to  us  a  clear  idea  of  how 
the  mounted  police  carry  out  their  arduous  duties.  They 
are  worth  giving  at  some  length. 

In  his  first  statement  U.  W.  Holland,  Mounted  Constable, 
of  Timber  Creek  Police  Station,  says  : — 

"  To  Sub-Inspector  T.  N.  Waters,  Palmerston. 

"  SIR, — I  have  the  honour  to  report  for  your  information 
that  on  the  12th  inst.  (March,  1910),  John  Yates  called  here 
from  Fraynes  and  reported  that  W.  J.  J.  Ward  had  been 
murdered  by  blacks  on  the  Humbert  River.  He  stated  that 
the  information  came  from  a  lubra  who  was  in  Ward's 
employ  and  is  now  in  the  Ord  River  country,  and  who  some 
time  ago  came  into  Wickham's  place.  On  being  questioned 
as  to  Ward's  whereabouts  she  told  a  very  tragic  story.  She 
stated  that,  getting  up  one  morning  to  go  after  Ward's 
horses,  she  took  Ward's  Mauser  pistol  unawares  to  Ward. 
Whilst  out  she  met  some  blacks  and  told  them  she  had 
Ward's  only  firearm.  The  blacks  then  surrounded  the  camp 
and  put  in  appearance  to  Ward,  who  ran  inside  to  get  his 

—  273  —  T 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

firearm,  but  seeing  it  was  stolen  he  made  an  attempt  to 
escape  through  one  door,  but  it  was  too  late,  as  the  blacks 
had  him  cornered.  Seeing  his  position  he  attempted  to 
escape  through  the  opposite  door,  where  he  was  again  met 
by  blacks,  who  stabbed  him  to  death  with  a  shovel-spear,  or 
butcher's  knife  on  a  spear  shaft,  torturing  him  meanwhile 
by  pulling  out  his  whiskers.  After  fulfilling  their  wicked 
deed  they  threw  spears  and  stones  at  the  body  and  held  a 
corrobboree  over  it,  then  put  it  in  a  stump  and  went  through 
the  performance  of  spear  and  stone- thro  wing  again.  Then 
the  body  was  thrown  in  a  water-hole.  Two  civilised  boys 
then  mounted  two  of  Ward's  horses  and  rounded  up  some 
cattle  and  shot  all  that  they  wanted. 

"  This  sounds  somewhat  like  a  romance,  and  I  dare  say 
is  exaggerated  by  Yates,  and  if  this  lubra  is  on  the  Ord 
River,  Constable  S.  C.  Dempsey  will  most  probably  learn 
the  truth  of  the  tragedy.  Yates  did  not  know  who  any  of 
the  murderers  were. 

"  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  U.  W.  HOLLAND,  M.C." 

The  next  report  to  Sub-Inspector  Waters  is  as  follows  : — 

"  SIR, — I  have  the  honour"to  report  for  your  information 
lea ving  this  station  on  13th  inst.  (March).  From  what  John 
Yates  stated  here  concerning  the  murder  of  W.  J.  J.  Ward,  a 
pastoralist,  I  arrived  at  the  Humbert  River  on  16th  instant 
and  made  a  careful  inspection  of  the  hut  and  surroundings. 
From  all  appearances  no  person  had  been  there  for  some 
considerable  time.  The  long  grass  had  grown  over  the 
stock  yards  and  almost  up  to  the  hut  doors.  On  making 
a  careful  inspection  of  the  doors  I  discovered  a  few  blood 

—  274  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

splashes  on  both  sides  of  one  door,  but  nothing  further  was 
seen  to  warrant  that  the  murder  had  been  committed  there. 
A  careful  search  for  blood-stained  weapons  was  made  by 
tracker  and  myself,  but  none  found.  A  careful  search  in  the 
locality  was  made  for  the  body  by  tracker  and  myself  without 
success.  The  blood  stains  on  the  door  suggest  that  the 
murder  was  committed  therein,  and  if  human  blood,  it 
corroborates  Yates'  story  as  far  as  making  the  escape  through 
the  back  door  is  concerned.  In  my  own  personal  experi- 
ence with  Ward,  from  what  I  could  gather  this  back  door 
was  never  used  or  opened.  On  my  examination  it  appeared 
to  have  been  opened  in  a  hurry,  thus  leaving  just  about 
enough  room  for  a  man  to  squeeze  through.  I  afterwards 
mustered  Ward's  horses,  nine  and  two  foals,  together,  all 
the  effects  as  per  journal  25th  instant,  and  brought  them  to 
Timber  Creek.  I  made  stringent  inquiries  amongst  the 
natives  at  Victoria  River  Downs  on  21st  instant,  and  they 
seemed  to  know  nothing  of  the  murderers.  I  have  been 
informed  that  S.  C.  Dempsey  is  around  towards  the  Western 
Australian  border  in  pursuit  of  the  murderers.  Until  his 
return  there  is  little  or  no  clue  to  work  up. 

"  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 
"Your  obedient  servant, 
"U.  W.  HOLLAND,  M.C." 

In  the  following  June  considerable  progress  had  been 
made.  Holland  writes  from  Timber  Creek  thus  : — 

"  SIR, — I  have  the  honour  to  report  leaving  this  station  on 
18th  May  in  company  with  S.  C.  Dempsey,  and  proceeding 
to  Victoria  River  Downs  in  search  of  natives  implicated  in 
the  alleged  murder  of  William  J.  J.  Ward  on  the  Humbert 
River.  We  arrived  at  Victoria  Downs  on  25th  May,  and  that 

—  275  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

morning  at  daylight  arrested  George  Abaduk,  alleged  to  have 
been  a  principal  in  the  murder  of  Ward,  and  a  boy  named 
Possum,  pointed  out  by  a  woman,  'Topsy,'as  being  seen  by 
her  on  the  Humbert  River.  I  left  Victoria  Downs  on  28th 
May  to  search  for  Henry  Bening,  reported  as  being  lost,  and 
returned  on  6th  June,  which  subject  forms  a  separate  report. 
That  night  a  native  named  '  Gordon,'  who  is  really  the 
principal  in  the  Humbert  River  murder,  came  into  the  station 
and  speared  a  boy  employed  there,  known  as  Murphy,  but 
not  fatally.  All  hands  turned  out  to  chase  Gordon,  but  he 
swam  the  river  and  got  away  in  the  dark.  On  9th  June  a 
party  was  formed  consisting  of  Henry  Bening,  a  Victoria 
Downs  stockman,  myself  and  Tracker  Charlie,  with  two 
private  '  boys  '  and  the  natives  George  and  Possum  detained 
from  the  25th  ultimo.  All  the  party  carried  firearms,  except 
the  last-named  two  natives,  as  the  blacks  in  the  locality  are 
treacherous.  Gordon's  tracks  were  found  and  followed  that 
day  to  a  place  called  Whitewater. 

"  On  the  10th  several  tracks  were  discovered  and  it  was 
surmised  that  Gordon  had  joined  the  rest  of  the  tribe.  Here 
the  country  became  mountainous,  with  immense  outcrops  of 
sandstone.  The  horses  were  here  left  and  the  party  pro- 
ceeded on  foot.  On  discovering  the  natives  had  crossed 
over  the  mountains  and  were  bearing  westward  across  a 
stretch  of  plain  the  party  returned  to  the  horses.  The 
following  day  (llth)  the  party  crossed  the  before-mentioned 
plain  and  there  left  the  horses  and  plant  in  a  safe  and  suit- 
able spot.  The  party  then  proceeded  across  the  mountains 
on  foot,  as  it  was  impossible  to  follow  the  tracks  on  horses. 
The  newness  of  tracks  and  camps  suggested  that  there  was  a 
reasonable  chance  of  overtaking  the  natives  in  a  few  days. 
As  the  ground  was  fearfully  rough  with  numerous  caves, 

—  276  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

fissures  and  high  sandstone  cliffs,*the  party  took  as  few 
rations  as  possible,  so  that  they  might  not  be  encumbered. 
After  travelling  about  ten  miles  on  the  12th,  very  recent 
tracks  were  found  in  a  patch  of  sandy  ground  in  the  vicinity 
of  Light  Creek.  These  tracks,  according  to  my  native 
boys  hi  the  party,  were  those  of  Gordon,  Moroun,  Longanna, 
Walgarra  and  another  native,  whose  tracks  they  were 
acquainted  with,  and  who  it  is  now  alleged  are  the  chief  per- 
petrators of  the  Humbert  River  crime.  About  3  p.m.,  while 
the  party  was  following  these  tracks  along  a  rough  stony 
creek,  our  attention  was  drawn  by  the  barking  of  dogs  up 
on  the  bank  amongst  the  high  grass.  On  discovering  that 
this  was  a  native  camp,  and  in  it  some  of  the  natives  we  were 
in  pursuit  of,  I  gave  orders  to  the  party  to  retreat  in  case  of 
being  discovered  by  the  natives  before  we  could  surround 
their  camp  in  a  proper  manner  so  as  to  prevent  any  from 
escaping.  This  was  carried  out  successfully. 

"  On  recognising  Gordon  every  precaution  was  taken  by 
the  party  to  effect  his  arrest  or  that  of  any  other  native  who 
was  implicated  in  the  crime.  On  closer  observation  only 
two  natives  and  three  gins  were  seen  in  the  camp,  namely 
Gordon  and  Mudgela,  Gordon's  two  gins,  Tapo  and  Lu-Lu, 
and  a  third  woman.  The  other  natives  ostensibly  were 
out  hunting.  Seizing  an  opportunity  myself  and  private 
boy  Jimmy  rose  up  out  of  the  grass  and  called  upon  Gordon 
to  stand,  at  the  same  time  George  and  Possum  (two  natives 
of  this  tribe  detained)  told  Gordon  to  sit  down  and  no  more 
be  frightened  as  they  would  not  be  harmed.  Immediately 
Gordon  sprang  up  and  threw  a  spear  at  Jimmy,  who  was  close 
to  me.  The  boy  fortunately  just  dodged  the  well-aimed 
deadly  weapon  by  bowing  down  and  causing  the  spear  to 
just  miss  him,  but  by  very  little.  This  was  done  with  keen 

—  277  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

judgment  and  vivacity,  so  close  did  it  go  that  it  left  a  streak 
of  red  ochre  in  its  course  along  the  boy's  back. 

"  This  was  followed  by  Gordon  breaking  through  the 
party  as  if  to  make  for  shelter.  On  reaching  the  mass  of 
boulders  he  turned  around  and  slipped  another  spear  in  his 
woomera  (thro wing-stick)  and  was  in  the  act  of  hurling  it  at 
me  or  the  boy,  Jimmy,  when  Jimmy  shot  him.  He  (Gordon) 
was  afterwards  buried  by  myself  and  H.  Bening  on  the  spot 
where  he  met  his  death.  The  other  natives  made  their  escape. 
The  gin,  '  Lu-Lu,'  was  afterwards  captured  by  the  party  and 
brought  to  Timber  Creek  and  detained  as  a  witness  in  con- 
nection with  the  Ward  murder.  The  party  then  returned, 
as  Bening  became  ill  and  was  unable  to  continue  any  further 
search  ;  likewise  I  deemed  it  advisable  to  let  the  natives 
settle  down  for  awhile,  and  return  to  Timber  Creek  to  re- 
plenish supplies  and  shoe  horses  afresh  for  an  extended 
search  for  the  other  offending  natives.  Statement  signed 
by  Henry  Bening  and  the  natives  who  accompanied  me  and 
witnessed  the  shooting,  attached. 

"  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  Sir, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"URIAH  W.  HOLLAND,  M.C. 

"  To  T.  N.  WATERS,  Esq., 
"  Sub-  Inspect  or  of  Police, 
"  Palmerston." 

In  the  light  of  corroborative  evidence  the  following  are 
interesting  : — 

"  Statement  made  by  Jimmy,  Aboriginal. 

"  I  savee  Gordon,  him  come  along  Station  and  spearum 
Murphy.  I  bin  hearum  him  kill  Buglow  (W.  J.  J.  Ward). 
I  follow  him  up  longa  Mr.  Holland,  four  fellow  day  me  and 

—  278  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

allabout  bin  find  that  one  Gordon  and  Mudgela  longa  camp 
longa  Light  Creek.  Mr.  Holland  say  '  round  em  up,  catch 
that  one  Gordon.'  Bye  and  bye  him  bin  say  no  more  run 
away.  Then  I  yabba  sit  down  quiet  fellow  to  Gordon,  him 
then  throw  one  big  fellow  shovel  spear  at  me,  close  up  catch 
me,  him  run  longa  back.  Him  cheeky  fellow,  him  put 
nother  spear  longa  womra  close  up  throw  him  when  I  bin 
think  it  might  him  finish  us  up  altogether,  and  I  bin  shoot 

him  then. 

"  JIMMY  x  His  mark. 
"  Witnessed  by  Henry  Bening." 

"  Statement  made  by  Possum,  Aboriginal. 

"  I  savee  Gordon  him  come  alonga  Wickham  Station 
one  night  when  I  bin  there  alonga  Mr.  Holland,  I  bin  hear 
row  and  allabout  boy  bin  talk  Gordon  spear  Murphy  that 
one  be  bin  kill  Buglow  too  (W.  J.  J.  Ward).  I  bin  leavum 
station  longa  Mr.  Holland  and  go  follow  up  Gordon.  We 
been  follow  um  track  up  for  four  fellow  day.  Me  and 
allabout  find  Gordon  and  Mudgela  longa  Camp  on  Light 
Creek,  some  fellow  gin  there  too.  I  bin  savee  Gordon  track 
and  allabout  blackfellow,  and  when  we  close  fellow  Mr. 
Holland  bin  talk.  '  We  go  back  quiet  fellow  and  round  um 
up.'  Bye  and  bye  we  bin  round  em  up,  allabout  talk  sit 
down  quiet  fellow,  no  more  be  frightened,  no  more  run  away. 
Gordon  then  jump  up  and  throw  spear  longa  Jimmy  close 
up  kill  him,  him  make  um  mark  longa  back.  Him  have 
nother  one  spear  longa  womra  close  up  throw  him  and 
Jimmy  bin  shoot  him  then. 

"  Possum   x   His  Mark. 
"  Witnessed  by  A.  J.  A.  White,  M.C.  2nd  Class." 

In  the  end  Trooper  Holland  was  successful  in  arresting 
Mudgela  and  two  other  natives,  Walgarra  and  Longanna, 

—  279  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

who  were  implicated  in  the  deed.  Longanna  regained  his 
freedom  by  breaking  the  lock  of  his  chain,  but  his  companions 
in  crime  were  in  due  course  tried  and  sentenced  to  death. 
The  promptness  with  which  this  murder  was  investigated 
and  avenged  was  not  without  its  result  on  the  Victoria 
River  tribes,  and  the  Palmerston  judge  who  heard  the 
case  very  properly  commended  the  two  officers  concerned 
for  their  energy.  On  this  duty  Trooper  Holland  travelled 
about  1,000  miles. 

Sub-Inspector  T.  N.  Waters,  to  whom  reference  has  been 
made,  is  an  officer  who  has  seen  long  and  varied  service  in 
the  far  north.  Of  him  many  stories  are  told.  Not  the 
least  troublesome  of  the  floating  coastal  population  are  the 
pearling  crews — whites  and  Japanese  and  Manila  men — 
and  Port  Darwin  has  witnessed  some  great  pitched  battles 
between  these  and  the  representatives  of  the  law.  At  the 
head  of  his  troopers  the  big  burly  sergeant  (as  he  then  was) 
would  sail  in  like  a  whirlwind,  and  the  number  of  broken 
heads  bore  ample  testimony  to  the  prowess  of  the  police. 

"  I  have  seen  Waters,"  said  one  old  resident,  "  pick  up  a 
prisoner  by  the  scruff  of  his  neck  and  walk  off  with  him  at 
arm's-length,  the  man's  feet  trailing  on  the  ground." 

Another  well-known  mounted  police  officer  of  the  Terri- 
tory is  Inspector  Paul  Foelsche.  Probably  no  one  knows 
the  northern  native  and  his  ways  so  well,  and  certainly  no 
one  has  inspired  them  with  so  much  respect.  In  times  of 
unrest  he  has  been  a  power  in  the  land  in  the  restoration  of 
order.  The  Cape  Brogden  massacre  of  1892,  when  a  Malay 
proa's  crew  was  killed  by  blacks,  saw  him  energetically  to  the 
fore.  After  a  fairly  long  chase  the  murderers  were  cornered 
and  the  tribe  taught  the  lesson  that  retribution  inevitably 
follows  upon  escapades  of  this  nature. 

—  280  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

The  question  is  often  asked  :  But  is  not  the  Australian 
black  dying  out  ?  To  this  the  answer  is  emphatically  yes. 
At  the  present  time  the  southern  portion  of  the  continent 
contains  very  few  natives.  In  New  South  Wales  and 
Victoria  together  there  are  only  about  eight  thousand  ; 
South  Australia  numbers  some  three  thousand.  Queens- 
land and  Western  Australia,  on  the  other  hand,  have  re- 
spectively about  20,000  and  30,000,  for  in  these  States  are 
greater  areas  of  unsettled,  still  wild  country.  The  figures 
given  can  only  be  approximate.  The  nomadic  population 
of  Cape  York  Peninsula  in  the  north-east,  and  of  the 
Kimberley  districts  in  the  north-west,  cannot  be  exactly 
estimated.  And  this  is  much  the  case  in  the  far  north. 
Driven  thence  by  the  expansion  of  settlements,  the  aborigines 
range  over  the  Territory  at  will,  living  on  the  game  and 
natural  products  of  the  land  what  time  they  do  not  raid 
their  white  neighbours'  cattle.  They  are  several  thousands 
strong  and  admittedly  of  a  savage  disposition.  But  in 
noting  this  fact  one  need  not  take  a  too  alarmist  view. 
Such  troubles  as  arise  can  be  dealt  with  satisfactorily  by  the 
small  force  of  police  available.  The  blacks  rarely  gather  in 
large  numbers,  and  there  is  no  cohesion  among  the  different 
tribes.  That  they  are  steadily  decreasing  is  the  natural 
sequence  of  conflict  with  civilisation  ;  it  is  only  in  accord- 
ance with  the  general  law  that  governs  the  contact  of  a 
black  race  with  a  white  one.1 

In  the  meantime,  having  regard  to  the  circumstances 


1  The  annual  increase  of  half-castes  is  relatively  large  and  is  an  un- 
doubted factor  in  determining  the  elimination  of  the  race.  In  New  South 
Wales  last  year  the  aboriginal  population  consisted  of  2,123  full-bloods 
and  5,247  half-castes.  In  South  Australia  the  nine  years  1901  to  1910 
show  a  decrease  of  576  blacks  and  an  increase  of  171  half-castes  ;  there 
are  about  800  of  the  latter  now  in  the  State. 

—  28l  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  life  in  the  wilder  regions,  the  isolated  settler  and  the 
traveller  who  does  not  take  the  precaution  to  ally  himself 
to  a  party  must  run  the  risk  to  which  they  are  exposed. 
It  may  not  always  be  a  big  risk,  but  it  exists  as  surely  in 
savage  Australia  as  it  has  existed  in  South  Africa  or  any 
other  colony  where  similar  pioneer  conditions  have  obtained. 
To  be  forewarned  is  to  be  forearmed.  The  "  old  hand," 
when  he  pitches  his  camp  in  what  is  termed  "  bad  nigger 
country,"  will  sling  his  mosquito  net,  light  a  fire  and  set 
the  billy  a-boil  over  it,  and  then  find  a  safer  sleeping-place 
some  distance  away. 

The  experience  of  a  couple  of  bushmen  known  to  the 
writer  will  serve  to  illustrate  this  point.  They  were  up- 
country  on  the  western  border  and  on  camping  one  night 
they  both  turned  in  under  one  net  in  the  bush,  leaving  the 
other  in  position  by  their  waggon.  In  the  morning  they 
woke  to  make  an  unpleasant  discovery.  They  had  been 
robbed  of  their  stores  by  some  natives,  whose  tracks  on  the 
rough  ground  were  plainly  discernible,  and  they  had  had  a 
narrow  escape  from  death.  Close  by  the  mosquito  net 
under  which  they  had  slept  were  tracks  which  told  a  startling 
story.  A  native  had  stood  on  guard  by  them,  with  spear 
poised  in  his  hand,  the  while  his  fellows  were  stealthily  pur- 
loining their  goods.  Had  they  roused  at  any  noise  the 
spear  would  have  descended  instantly,  for  the  keen  eyes  of 
the  black  must  have  been  watching  for  the  bulge  in  the  net 
that  would  have  been  caused  by  a  raised  head. 

Chasing  horse-thieves  and  cattle-duffers,  not  to  mention 
worse  criminals,  and  keeping  in  order  unruly  natives,  re- 
presents the  dark  side  of  a  mounted  policeman's  life  in  the 
north.  But  to  a  man  to  whom  the  free  open-air  life  appeals 
there  are  compensations.  The  Territory  is  tropical  country, 

—  282  — 


THE  NORTHERN  TERRITORY 

magnificent  in  its  vegetation  and  prolific  in  animal  life.  It 
is  a  country  where  everything  is  on  a  grand  scale  and  where 
nature  is  continually  unfolding  a  new  wonder  before  one's 
eyes. 

Of  this  other  side  to  a  policeman's  life  Mr.  Searcey  writes  : 
"  Still  they  (the  troopers)  had  glorious  times.  Just  imagine 
starting  out  on  a  patrol  for  three  or  four  months,  with  a 
dozen  good  horses  well-packed  with  necessary  stores,  and 
plenty  of  arms  and  ammunition.  They  did  the  journey  in 
their  own  time,  and  were  their  own  masters  in  every  way. 
There  was  abundance  of  food  and  water  for  the  animals, 
and  a  standing  authority  from  the  station  owners  and 
managers  to  shoot  any  of  the  cattle  if  beef  were  required. 
There  was  the  certainty  of  a  hearty  welcome  at  such  stations 
as  they  might  call  at.  It  was  a  charming  and  entrancing 
country  to  ride  over,  the  scenery  being  almost  too  beautiful 
for  description.  This  was  especially  so  in  the  early  morning, 
when  the  sun  as  it  rose  lifted  the  mantle  of  mist  and  disclosed 
a  magnificent  panorama  of  fine  trees,  amongst  which  were 
the  pandanus,  cabbage  palm,  Leichhardt  pine,  paper  bark 
and  fig.  The  large  lagoons  teemed  with  game  and  fish,  and 
were  always  covered  with  lilies.  The  big  winding  rivers, 
well  defined  by  giant  trees  growing  thickly  along  the  banks 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  the  beautiful  waterfalls,  the  grand 
valleys,  the  extensive,  well-grassed  plains,  formed  pictures 
which  can  only  be  properly  appreciated  by  those  who  have 
been  fortunate  enough  to  behold  them.  The  bounding 
kangaroo,  the  mobs  of  brumbies  or  cattle  disappearing  across 
the  plains  or  into  some  valley,  all  lent  enchantment  to  the 
scene.  It  is  no  wonder  that  men  become  attached  to  such  a 
country.  A  free  and  independent  life  once  experienced  can 
never  be  forgotten." 

—  283  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

South  Australia's  rule  over  this  vast  extent  of  country 
has  now  ceased.  Within  the  past  year  the  Northern  Terri- 
tory has  been  transferred  to  the  Government  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  in  future  it  will  be  under  a  separate  administra- 
tion. What  place  it  will  take  in  the  federation  of  States 
it  is  not  hard  to  predict.  Its  natural  resources  are  only  half 
understood.  It  is  rich  in  pastoral  land  ;  it  offers  induce- 
ments to  the  planter  of  tobacco,  tea,  india-rubber,  cotton  and 
other  products  ;  and  its  mineral  wealth  of  gold,  silver,  tin 
and  copper  is  undoubted.  The  intelligent  observer  of 
Australian  affairs,  therefore,  will  watch  the  development  of 
the  new  province  with  the  keenest  interest. 


—  284  — 


CHAPTER   XVI 

THE   ABORIGINES 

Origin — Physical  characteristics — Mental  qualities — Spears — Sword  v. 
shield — Native  huts — Art — Corrobborees — Superstitions — "  You  bin 
settled  this  time  " — Singing  a  man  dead — A  misunderstanding — In- 
stances of  fidelity — A  dark  page  of  history — Eloquent  figures — "  All 
gone  !  dead  !  " — A  point  of  view — Tasmanian  aborigines — "  The 
Black  Line  " — Myall  Creek  massacre — A  salutary  lesson — Queens- 
land barbarities — The  aboriginal  to-day — Increase  of  half-castes — 
State  problems. 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  much  reference  has  been  made 
to  the  natives  of  Australia.  It  is  essential  that  some- 
thing further  should  be  said  with  regard  to  their  history  and 
customs,  in  order  that  the  reader  may  properly  understand 
the  nature  of  the  people  with  whom  the  mounted  police 
come  so  much  in  contact.  We  write  and  speak  easily  of 
them  as  "  the  blackfellows,"  but  there  are  many  points  of 
difference  between  the  tribes  of  one  State  and  another,  in 
physique,  in  mental  qualities  and  hi  various  other  respects. 
The  origin  of  the  native  races  of  the  continent  is  too  pro- 
found a  subject  for  discussion  here.  It  is  in  itself  the  text 
of  a  whole  volume.  Most  probably  the  bulk  of  the  abori- 
gines are  of  Melanesian  stock,  with  infusions  of  blood  from 
India  and  parts  of  Asia.  To  speak  of  them  as  blacks  is 
not  precisely  correct.  The  majority  of  the  tribes  are  of  a 
dark  brown  chocolate  colour  ;  only  a  few  here  and  there 
approach  the  sable  hue  of  the  negro.  As  a  rule  the  hair  is 
straight,  differing  from  that  of  the  now  extinct  Tasmanian 

-285- 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

natives,  who  were  frizzly-haired.  Whether  these  Tasmanians 
represented  the  original  inhabitants  of  Australia  is  a  moot 
point  in  ethnology.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  they  did,  as  they 
were  inferior  racially  to  the  blacks  of  the  mainland. 

Regarded  from  a  physical  standpoint  the  blackfellows 
do  not  compare  unfavourably  with  European  peoples. 
The  Aruntas,  an  important  tribe  found  in  the  central  part 
of  the  interior,  average  about  five  and  a  half  feet  in  height. 
Against  these,  however,  are  many  tribes  among  whom  the 
standard  of  height  is  much  nearer  six  feet.  In  the  northern 
districts,  where  the  aboriginal  is  in  his  more  primitive  state, 
one  meets  with  numerous  fine  specimens  of  manhood.  The 
upper  portions  of  the  body  are  usually  very  well  developed, 
being  indicative  of  great  strength,  but  the  legs  are  generally 
slender.  Several  writers  on  the  Australian  natives  mention 
cases  of  actual  giants,  one  blackfellow  having  been  close 
on  seven  feet  in  height.  The  evidence  of  the  explorers, 
Eyre,  Mitchell  and  Leichhardt,  among  others,  is  instructive 
in  this  respect. 

Describing  some  of  the  tribes  he  encountered  Eyre  wrote  : 
"  They  were  well-built,  muscular  men,  average  height  five  to 
six  feet,  men  with  fine,  round  deep  chests,  indicating  great 
bodily  strength,  remarkably  erect  and  upright  hi  their 
carriage,  with  much  natural  grace  and  dignity  of  demeanour. 
The  eye  is  generally  large,  black,  and  expressive,  with  the 
eyelashes  long.  When  met  for  the  first  time  in  his  native 
wilds  there  is  frequently  a  fearless  intrepidity  of  manner,  an 
ingenuous  openness  of  look,  and  a  propriety  of  behaviour, 
about  the  aboriginal  inhabitant  of  Australia  which  makes  his 
appearance  peculiarly  prepossessing."  According  to  Leich- 
hardt, the  Moreton  Bay  blacks  were  a  fine  race  of  men,  tall 
and  well  made,  and  their  bodies  individually,  as  well  as  the 

—  286  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

groups  which  they  formed,  would  have  delighted  the  eye 
of  an  artist. 

In  facial  appearance  the  blacks  vary  considerably. 
If  we  are  to  believe  some  observers,  the  general  type  is  brutal 
and  repulsive  ;  others  declare  that  good  looks  are  not  rare, 
and  that  the  features  are  usually  well  formed.  This  con- 
flict of  opinion  is  quite  explicable.  The  aboriginal  is  a 
human  puzzle.  In  some  parts  he  is  negroid  in  type,  with 
thick  lips,  large  mouth,  and  broad  flattened  nose.  A  des- 
cription of  a  Victorian  native  runs  thus  :  "  The  brow  was 
comparatively  low  and  retreating,  the  eyebrows  prominent 
and  shaggy,  eyes  fairly  large,  and  the  white  of  a  smoky 
yellowish  tinge  ;  the  nose  large  and  broad,  the  nostrils  wide  ; 
the  mouth  large  ;  the  lips  thick  ;  the  cheekbones  high  ; 
small  and  receding  jaw,  somewhat  projecting  ;  the  teeth 
large.  The  trunk  in  front  was  completely  covered  with 
dense  hair,  which  spread  over  the  shoulders  and  down  the 
outside  of  the  upper  arm.  The  beard  was  thick,  long  and 
curly,  with  a  tendency  to  fall  in  ringlets."  Elsewhere  one 
meets  with  more  pleasing  characteristics.  A  high  rounded 
forehead,  with  straight  well-shaped  nose,  and  full,  but  not 
thick,  lips,  combine  to  stamp  the  face  as  belonging  to  a 
totally  different  race. 

To  generalise,  therefore,  on  this  point  is  impossible. 
One  must  regard  the  natives  as  a  heterogeneous  people,  and 
judge  their  physical  standard  accordingly.  A  distinguished 
ethnologist  has  remarked  that  a  circle  of  five  hundred  miles 
round  Port  Essington,  on  the  northern  coast  near  Melville 
Island,  would  enclose  an  equal  number  of  tribes,  varying  in 
colour  from  deep  black  to  the  reddish  yellow  of  the  Poly- 
nesians, and  presenting  very  many  diversified  racial  types. 

Although  in  the  north  the  blacks  show  a  marked  in- 
—  287  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

fusion  of  Malay  and  Papuan  blood,  they  cannot  be  identified 
with  either  of  these  peoples.  Nor  are  they,  generally  speak- 
ing, Negroes  or  Mongolians.  It  is  highly  probable,  as  Pro- 
fessor Keane  avers,  that  they  are  Caucasian  in  origin  and 
more  particularly  allied  to  the  Dravidians  of  India.  At 
various  periods  in  their  history  there  have  been  intermixtures 
with  other  races,  and  thus  have  arisen  the  numerous  wide 
points  of  difference.  We  may  not  unreasonably  assume, 
taking  Australia  as  a  whole,  that  the  aboriginal  population 
has  sprung  from  at  least  two  human  stocks,  one  Melanesian, 
and  the  other  Caucasian  of  later  date. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  consider  the  mental  qualities  of  the 
Australian  blackfellow  that  we  find  ourselves  justified  in 
ranking  him  low  in  the  social  scale.  He  lives  in  a  tribe, 
or  family,  in  which  the  leadership  is  not  hereditary  but  is 
assumed  by  the  ablest  man.  He  has  no  art  of  writing  and  a 
pictorial  art  of  very  crude  form.  He  possesses  little  sense 
of  number,  seldom  being  able  to  count  beyond  five  or  ten. 
Anything  above  this  simple  computation  is  expressed  by 
"  many."  An  amusing  illustration  of  this  weakness  is 
often  quoted.  A  blackfellow,  who  had  accompanied  his 
master  on  a  trip  to  Sydney,  was,  on  his  return,  questioned 
by  the  boundary-rider,  "  Well,  Jacky,  did  you  see  many 
people  in  Sydney  ?  "  Jacky  gasped.  "  My  word  !  Tousands  ! 
Millions  !  very  nearly  fifty  !  "  Furthermore,  the  native 
leads  a  nomadic  (existence,  living  principally  on  the  game  of 
the  land — kangaroo,  wombats,  opossums,  birds,  lizards,  and 
the  like — and  knows  nothing  of  agriculture.  It  is  a  wretched 
existence  on  the  whole,  for  the  country  is  not  one  that  yields 
an  abundance  of  food.  The  blackfellow,  in  short,  is  more 
primitive  and  animal  than  perhaps  any  other  savage  race 
on  the  globe. 

—  388  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

As  becomes  a  people  living  so  purely  in  the  wild  state 
the  aborigines  have  developed  certain  arts  and  crafts  to  a 
degree  which  bespeaks  a  very  high  intelligence.  One  need 
only  refer  to  their  marvellous  powers  of  tracking  human 
beings  and  animals,  for  example.  This  is  a  subject  which 
demands  fuller  treatment  in  its  own  place.  Hardly  less 
wonderful  is  it  that  so  debased  beings  as  the  blacks  should 
have  discovered  the  principle  of  the  boomerang.  In  the 
construction  of  their  other  weapons,  spears,  clubs  and 
throwing  sticks  of  various  kinds,  they  have  advanced  little 
beyond  neolithic  man.  Before  the  coming  of  the  white  men 
to  their  country  they  made  their  spear-heads,  knives  and 
axes  entirely  of  stone,  bone  or  wood.  They  had  no  knowledge 
of  metals.  Their  domestic  utensils,  too,  are  primitive  and 
crude,  being  mostly  made  from  skins  and  reeds. 

The  war-spear  of  the  native  is  longer  than  that  used  in 
hunting  game.  It  is  often  eight  or  nine  feet  long.  For 
these  weapons  the  thin  stem  of  the  eucalyptus  is  selected, 
the  wood  being  straightened  and  hardened  by  intense  heat. 
The  heads  will  be  of  quartz  or  flint,  shaped  by  means  of  chip- 
ping stones,  or  of  glass  or  metal  which  its  owner  has  learnt 
to  use.  In  the  throwing  of  his  spears  the  blackfellow  displays 
remarkable  dexterity.  He  has  evolved  a  throwing-stick, 
called  a  woomera,  by  means  of  which  he  can  hurl  a  spear 
from  sixty  to  a  hundred  yards  with  great  precision.  In 
battle  the  warriors  protect  their  bodies  with  small  wooden 
shields,  but  they  are  quite  equal  to  catching  a  spear  in  full 
flight  and  throwing  it  back  at  the  enemy. 

As  an  instance  of  aboriginal  skill  in  combat  the  following 
story  may  be  told.  It  is  vouched  for  by  the  mounted  police 
officer  who  enjoyed  the  experience.  He  says  :  "  I  was  out 
with  a  party  of  troopers  in  search  of  some  blacks  who  had, 

—  289  —  y 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

been  committing  depredations  in  the  flocks  of  the  settlers 
near  Port  Fairy.  While  crossing  a  valley  in  front  of  my  men 
I  came  face  to  face  with  the  chief  of  those  of  whom  I  was  in 
search.  He,  too,  was  alone,  and  made  an  immediate  attack 
by  throwing  his  spears,  which  all  missed  me.  The  rain  had 
wetted  the  priming  in  my  pistols,  and  as  they  were  useless  I 
rode  up  to  cut  him  down  with  my  sword  ;  but  such  was  his 
astonishing  dexterity  hi  defending  himself  with  his  shield 
(only  a  narrow  piece  of  wood),  that  beyond  a  few  nicks 
of  the  fingers  I  was  unable  to  touch  him.  Several  times  I 
tried  to  ride  him  down,  but  he  doubled  himself  under  his 
shield  like  a  ball  and  the  horse  jumped  over  him.  After 
being  apparently  ridden  down  several  times  he  drove  his 
'  liangle  '  so  firmly  into  the  front  of  the  horse's  nose  that 
he  was  unable  to  pull  it  out  again.  The  horse  bled  so  freely 
that  I  was  compelled  to  abandon  the  contest,  and  the  native 
escaped.  He  was  not  only  a  brave  man,  but  a  savage  of 
splendid  physique,  with  a  chest  like  a  bullock's.  I  heard 
afterwards  that  he  was  very  proud  of  the  sword  cuts  on  his 
shield." 

In  detail  of  construction  and  ornamentation  native 
weapons  vary  a  great  deal.  Some  tribes  fashion  their 
shields  and  waddies  (wooden  clubs  thrown  by  the  hand)  very 
roughly ;  others  expend  no  little  time  and  care  hi  carving 
patterns  upon  the  handles.  Similarly  the  so-called  wooden 
swords  may  be  plain  or  elaborate  in  design.  Spear-heads 
take  several  forms,  being  barbed,  half-barbed  and  double- 
barbed  as  desired.  Without  going  into  particulars,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  weapons  of  the  Queensland  blacks  are 
superior  to  those  of  Victoria  and  the  more  western  States. 
Their  spears,  which  are  sometimes  nine  and  a  half  feet  long, 
are  more  or  less  coloured  near  the  ends  with  red  and  white 

—  290  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

clay.  For  the  purpose  of  binding  on  the  barbs  the  sinew  of 
a  wallaby's  tail  or  cord  made  from  the  bark  of  a  tree  is  used. 
The  binding  will  then  be  covered  with  bees-wax  or  a  pre- 
paration of  the  gum  of  the  grass  tree. 

A  feature  of  more  civilised  tribes  is  the  erection  of 
suitable  dwelling-places.  The  low  state  of  the  Australian 
aboriginal  in  the  bush  is  marked  by  the  simple  form  of  hut 
which  he  builds  for  shelter.  A  mia  mia,  or  wurley,  is  hastily 
constructed  with  twigs  and  bushes  and  covered  with  bark  or 
turf.  It  is  only  intended  to  be  a  "  break-wind,"  a  tempor- 
ary residence,  for  the  occupants  may  be  expected  to  move  to 
another  spot  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  or  even  days. 
Only  a  few  tribes  have  acquired  the  art  of  erecting  more 
substantial  and  permanent  huts.  The  native  of  the  far 
north  has  profited  by  the  example  set  him  by  more  advanced 
people,  as  the  Papuans,  and  has  learnt  how  to  build  himself 
a  roomy,  comfortable  house  of  wood  and  clay.  At  the 
other  extreme  we  have  the  cave-dwellers  of  certain  districts, 
leading  a  life  that  is  almost  devoid  of  creature  comforts. 

The  blackfellow,  we  have  noted,  has  no  high  sense  of  art. 
This  is  true,  but,  as  is  the  case  with  many  savage  tribes,  he 
delights  in  ornamenting  his  own  body  with  pigments.  Red 
and  white  are  the  principal  colours  used.  In  war  time  the 
native  smeared  with  stripes  of  red  ochre  and  white  clay  on 
chest,  arms  and  legs,  and  with  his  hair  similarly  coloured,  is 
a  hideous  object.  When  in  mourning  or  prepared  for  a 
corrobboree  he  is  decorated  with  white  only.  The  early 
explorers  were  frequently  confronted  with  parties  of  blacks 
in  all  the  glory  of  their  war-paint.  On  his  first  journey  along 
the  Murray,  Sturt  once  came  upon  a  large  number  of  natives 
thus  attired.  They  presented  a  dreadful  spectacle,  he  says. 
Some,  who  had  marked  their  ribs,  thighs,  and  faces  with  a 

—  291  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

white  pigment,  looked  like  skeletons  ;  whilst  others  were 
daubed  over  with  red  and  yellow  ochre,  and  their  bodies 
shone  with  the  grease  that  had  been  rubbed  over  them.  In 
the  background  were  many  who  had  the  appearance  of 
having  had  buckets  of  whitewash  emptied  over  their  heads. 
A  favourite  pattern  among  the  men  is  that  of  a  snake 
twined  round  the  leg  or  extending  along  the  arm.  The 
custom  of  painting  the  body  with  circles  and  squares  of 
more  or  less  regular  design  is  not  now  so  common. 

In  this  crude,  barbaric  form  of  self-adornment  one 
object  in  view  probably  is  to  strike  terror  into  the  heart  of  an 
enemy.  Hideously  painted  masks  are  worn  by  some  tribes 
for  this  purpose.  It  is  actuated  also  by  a  natural  personal 
vanity,  while  its  insistence  in  religious  and  other  tribal 
ceremonies  gives  it  another  distinct  significance.  In  the 
few  cave  paintings  executed  by  the  aborigines  or  their  more 
primitive  predecessors  we  find  the  same  bold  colouring. 
Note  the  striking  figures  observed  by  Grey  in  Western 
Australia.  At  the  entrance  to  a  cave  he  was  startled  to 
see  what  he  took  to  be  a  gigantic  head  bending  down  from 
a  rock  and  staring  at  him. 

"  It  would  be  impossible,"  he  writes,  "  to  convey  in  words 
an  adequate  idea  of  this  uncouth  and  savage  figure.  The 
dimensions  were — length  of  head  and  face,  2  ft.  ;  width 
of  face,  17  in. ;  length  from  bottom  of  face  to  navel,  2  ft.  6  in. 
Its  head  was  encircled  by  bright  red  rays,  something  like 
the  rays  which  one  sees  proceeding  from  the  sun  when  de- 
picted on  the  signboard  of  a  public-house  ;  inside  this  came 
a  broad  strip  of  very  brilliant  red,  which  was  coped  by  lines 
of  white,  but  both  inside  and  outside  of  this  red  space  were 
narrow  stripes  of  a  still  deeper  red,  intended  probably  to 
mark  its  boundaries  ;  the  face  was  painted  vividly  white, 

—  292  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

and  the  eyes  black,  being,  however,  surrounded  by  red  and 
yellow  lines  ;  the  body,  hands,  and  arms  were  outlined  in 
red,  the  body  being  curiously  painted  with  red  stripes  and 
bars. 

"  Upon  the  rock  which  formed  the  left-hand  wall  of  this 
cave,  and  which  partly  faced  you  on  entering,  was  a  very 
singular  painting,  vividly  coloured,  representing  four 
heads  joined  together.  From  the  mild  expression  of  the 
countenances  I  imagined  them  to  be  females,  and  they  ap- 
peared to  be  drawn  in  such  a  manner  and  in  such  a  position 
as  to  look  up  at  the  principal  figure  which  I  have  described  ; 
each  had  a  very  remarkable  head-dress,  coloured  with  a 
deep  bright  blue,  and  one  had  a  necklace  on.  Both  of  the 
lower  figures  had  a  sort  of  dress  painted  with  red  in  the  same 
manner  as  that  of  the  principal  figure,  and  one  of  them  had 
a  band  round  her  waist.  Each  of  the  four  faces  was  marked 
by  a  totally  distinct  expression  of  countenance  ;  and  although 
none  of  them  had  mouths,  two,  I  thought,  were  otherwise 
rather  good  looking.  The  whole  painting  was  executed  on 
a  white  ground,  and  its  dimensions  were — total  length  of 
painting,  3  ft.  6|  in.  ;  breadth  across  the  two  upper  heads, 
2  ft.  6  in.  ;  breadth  across  the  two  lower  ones,  3  ft.  1£  in." 

Among  the  numerous  other  drawings  which  the  cave 
contained  were  figures  of  men  and  kangaroos,  some  with  an 
obvious  attempt  at  humour  ;  but  the  majority  were  rough 
and  badly  executed  and  not  always  recognisable.  As 
examples  of  aboriginal  art,  however,  they  are  worthy  of  our 
attention,  the  more  so  as  only  two  other  instances  of  cave 
painting  in  Australia  are  on  record. 

The  effect  produced  by  a  corrobboree  with  its  painted 
attendants  is  striking  in  the  extreme.  This  spectacular 
dance  is  not  always  of  a  religious  character,  but  is  simply  the 

—  293  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

expression  of  the  savage's  delight  in  play.  It  is  dramatic 
and  often  variable  at  the  will  of  the  performers,  fresh  move- 
ments being  constantly  introduced.  The  "  figures  "  executed 
may  represent  scenes  of  the  chase,  when  some  of  the  men 
will  act  the  part  of  kangaroos  or  emus.  If  it  is  a  "  war  " 
dance,  then  a  mimic  battle  will  take  place  with  wonderful 
realism.  In  one  instance  it  was  a  representation  of  a 
cattle  raid  that  was  staged.  First  were  seen  the  cattle 
(personated  by  natives)  lying  down  among  the  trees.  Then 
came  the  raiders,  stealing  noiselessly  through  the  bush 
with  their  spears  and  leaping  suddenly  upon  their  prey. 
After  the  performance  of  killing  and  cutting  up  some  car- 
cases had  been  gone  through,  the  sound  of  horsemen  was 
heard.  The  spectators  then  witnessed  a  thrilling  conflict 
between  the  cattle-raiders  and  another  party  of  blacks, 
who  were  intended  to  represent  white  stockmen,  the  drama 
concluding  with  the  rout  of  the  latter,  to  everyone's  huge 
delight.  As  a  rule  males  are  the  chief  performers,  the  women 
keeping  on  the  outskirts  and  assisting  to  supply  the  vocal 
music. 

A  corrobboree  is  held  at  night,  in  a  piece  of  the  bush 
specially  selected  for  the  purpose,  and  fires  are  lighted  to 
illumine  the  scene.  There  is  no  limit  to  the  number  con- 
cerned. There  may  be  two  or  three  hundred  natives,  or  a 
mere  handful.  All,  however,  are  fantastically  painted  and 
adorned  with  white  perpendicular  lines  on  face  and  chest,  and 
with  feathers  and  bunches  of  grass  attached  to  the  hair, 
wrists  and  ankles.  The  dancers  are  nude  except  for  the 
few  ornaments  they  wear,  and  carry  light  wooden  clubs  or 
spears  with  which  they  beat  time  on  the  ground.  Apart  from 
these  performers  are  the  singers,  who  keep  up  a  monotonous 
chant.  When  the  dance  begins  the  leaders  advance,  and 

—  294  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

their  followers  form  and  reform  in  various  figures,  shouting, 
singing,  and  stamping  their  feet  in  repetition.  In  many 
— one  may  say  most — cases  these  movements  are  concerted, 
so  that  a  certain  order  is  maintained.  But  it  is  not  often 
that  a  corrobboree  dance  is  identical  with  a  previous  one 
in  every  respect.  It  is  usually  in  the  dances  having  a 
religious,  or  rather,  superstitious  significance — as  the  well- 
known  "  Molongo  " — that  we  meet  with  one  common  to 
several  tribes. 

Savage  peoples  are  invariably  steeped  in  superstition. 
With  the  Australian  aboriginal  the  world — particularly 
the  world  of  darkness — is  controlled  by  evil  spirits.  This 
phase,  again,  is  one  that  might  be  enlarged  upon  inde- 
finitely. Along  with  this  primitive  belief  in  ghosts  and 
sorceries  one  finds  a  curious  fatalism  among  the  black- 
fellows.  It  is  common  knowledge,  for  instance,  that  a 
native  who  takes  it  into  his  head  for  some  reason  that  he  is 
going  to  die,  will  almost  certainly  verify  the  prediction. 
A  mounted  police  officer  told  the  writer  of  a  case  in  point. 
Charlie,  a  tracker  who  had  not  been  long  in  the  police 
service,  one  day  got  injured  by  falling  on  a  sharp-pointed 
stake.  The  wound  was  a  nasty  one,  but  not  at  all  dangerous. 
While  the  bleeding  was  being  stopped  a  trooper  foolishly 
remarked,  "  My  word,  Charlie,  you  bin  settled  this  time  !  " 
Charlie  took  this  jest  in  all  seriousness,  and  regarded  him- 
self as  doomed.  Next  morning  he  was  found  dead  in  the 
camp. 

In  certain  parts  of  the  country  the  blacks  carry  "  sug- 
gestion "  so  far  as  to  actually  "  sing  a  man  dead."  An 
individual  who  has  trespassed  against  tribal  law  in  some 
unpardonable  way  is  singled  out  for  punishment.  Headed 
by  the  old  women  and  the  witch-doctors,  a  large  portion 

—  295  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  the  tribe  set  out  to  find  the  offender  and  commence  to 
sing  his  death  dirge.  The  luckless  victim  accepts  the  situ- 
ation and  goes  away  into  the  bush  to  die. 

That  the  black  is  not  without  a  sense  of  humour  is 
evident  to  any  one  who  has  intimate  knowledge  of  him. 
He  has  the  simple  enjoyment  of  a  child  in  the  games 
peculiar  to  his  race.  But  it  is  not  always  safe  to  joke  with 
him.  The  savage  mind  is  quick  to  take  offence,  even 
where  none  is  intended,  and  passion  is  easily  aroused.  An 
old  settler  tells  an  amusing  story  of  how  unwittingly  he 
insulted  a  native  servant  of  his.  Wananna  had  been  away 
from  the  station  for  some  weeks  ;  when  he  returned  he  was 
accompanied  by  a  young  gin,  his  newly-married  wife.  As 
the  two  approached  the  master  hailed  the  black  with, 
"  Well,  old  man,  and  how  have  you  been  getting  on  ?  "  In 
a  moment  Wananna's  grinning  face  changed  expression,  and, 
springing  forward,  he  seized  the  other  by  the  throat.  The 
black  was  in  a  terrible  rage.  "  You  no  call  me  old  man," 
he  said  again  and  again.  To  have  such  an  epithet  applied 
to  him  in  the  presence  of  his  young  wife  was  an  intolerable 
insult.  And  it  was  some  time  before  the  station  owner  could 
make  him  understand  the  meaning  of  the  familiar  term. 

Such,  then,  is  the  Australian  blackfellow  as  we  know  him 
to-day.  To  what  has  been  said  above  it  must  be  added  that 
he  is  notoriously  treacherous  and  untrustworthy.  The 
mounted  police  themselves  are  always  wary  with  their 
black  trackers,  for  years  of  service  with  the  force  will  not 
eradicate  the  instinct  to  turn  on  the  white  man  and  kill  if 
opportunity  presents  itself  and  there  is  anything  to  be 
gained  thereby.  Over  confidence  in  the  natives,  coupled 
with  carelessness,  has  brought  about  many  a  tragedy  in  the 
bush. 

—  296  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

At  the  same  time  there  are  not  a  few  outstanding  in- 
stances of  fidelity  on  the  part  of  the  blacks  which  would 
appear  to  give  the  lie  to  the  general  acceptance  of  their 
character.  One  recalls  the  faithful  Wylie,  the  companion 
of  Eyre  during  the  latter 's  journey  along  the  shores  of  the 
Great  Australian  Bight ;  Jackey-Jackey,  who  tended  poor 
Kennedy  to  the  last  and  buried  the  dead  explorer  in  the 
scrub ;  and  Warburton's  boy,  Charlie,  who  did  so  much  to 
save  his  party  from  a  terrible  fate  in  the  desert.  Of  equal 
interest  is  Sir  John  Forrest's  tribute  to  his  faithful  com- 
panion, "Billy  Noongale,"  a  Beverley  native  who  accom- 
panied the  explorer  from  Perth  to  Adelaide  in  1870.  These 
examples  of  loyalty,  however,  are  rare.  They  only  go 
to  show  that  in  certain  conditions  the  black  is  capable  of 
displaying  the  finest  qualities.  As  a  rule  his  attachment  is 
personal.  The  police  know  this.  A  native  tracker  con- 
siders himself  the  servant  of  an  individual  trooper,  not  of 
the  force  as  a  whole.  Despite  Wylies  and  Jackey-Jackeys  the 
aboriginal  in  the  main  does  not  belie  his  unsavoury  reputation. 

It  remains  now  to  speak  of  the  treatment  of  the  blacks 
by  the  white  men.  This  brings  us  to  a  dark  page  in  Aus- 
tralian history,  a  page  one  would  willingly  blot  out  if  it 
were  possible.  But  no  account  of  the  aborigines  would  be 
complete  without  this  long  tale  of  cruelty  and  oppression. 
The  process  of  elimination  was  rapid  in  the  early  years  of 
the  colony.  Let  the  official  figures  speak  for  themselves. 
In  1800  the  native  population  was  estimated  at  150,000  ; 
it  was  probably  more,  for  the  first  settlers  could  make  but 
a  rough  computation.  Half  a  century  later  the  number 
was  about  55,000.  Since  then  they  have  been  steadily 
diminishing  year  by  year,  and  their  ultimate  extinction  as  a 
race  is  inevitable. 

—  297  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

In  his  volume,  The  Living  Races  of  Mankind,  the 
Rev.  H.  N.  Hutchinson  gives  a  striking  illustration  of  the 
changes  wrought  by  a  few  years.  He  says  :  "  When  Mr. 
Lloyd  first  landed  in  Geelong,  in  1837,  the  Barrabool  tribe 
numbered  nearly  three  hundred,  and  fine-looking  fellows 
they  were.  When  he  went  away  in  1853,  there  were  not 
many  left.  Seeing  so  few  natives  about,  he  began  to  make 
inquiries  about  some  of  his  dark  friends  of  early  days. 
The  reply  he  received  is  so  pathetic  that  it  may  be  given  as 
far  as  possible  in  the  very  words  :  '  Aha,  Mitter  Looyed  ! 
Ballyyang  dead,  Jaga-jaga  dead,  Panigerong  dead  (and 
many  others  they  named).  The  stranger  white  man  came 
in  his  great  swimming  vessel,  and  landed  with  his  large 
animals  and  his  little  animals.  He  came  with  his  "  boom- 
booms  "  (double-barrelled  guns)  and  his  tents,  and  the  great 
white  stranger  took  away  the  long-inherited  hunting- 
grounds  of  the  poor  Barrabool  coolies  and  their  children.' 
Then,  weeping,  shaking  their  heads,  and  holding  up  their 
hands  in  the  bitterness  of  their  sorrow,  they  exclaimed : 
'  Coolie,  coolie,  coolie !  Where  are  our  coolies  now  ? 
Where  are  our  fathers,  mothers,  brothers,  sisters  ?  Dead  ! 
all  gone  !  dead  !  '  " 

It  has  been  the  case  with  the  Australian  aboriginal  as 
with  his  red  brother  of  North  America.  The  usurpation  of 
his  hunting-grounds  and  the  killing  of  the  game  on  which  he 
largely  subsisted  have  pushed  him  to  the  wall.  The  Indian's 
plaint  was,  "  White  man  come,  buffalo  all  gone  !  "  The 
blackfellow  has  said  exactly  the  same  thing,  "  White  man 
come,  kangaroo  all  gone  !  "  For  a  long  time,  too,  the  old 
dictum  held  good,  that  "  The  only  good  nigger  is  a  dead 
nigger."  How  many  black  camps,  it  may  be  wondered, 
have  been  "  wiped  out,"  literally,  without  the  knowledge 

—  298  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

of  the  mounted  police  or  any  other  authority  ?  Mr.  Searcey 
relates  that  he  once  received  a  letter  from  a  man  who  was 
attacked  by  blacks  in  the  Gulf  country  and  was  very  badly 
speared.  He  recovered  in  due  course.  In  his  letter  he 
said,  "  I  now  shoot  at  sight ;  killed  to  date  thirty-seven." 
It  is  typical  of  the  point  of  view  that  is  acquired  in  a  country 
where  nearly  every  native  is  hostile.  That  the  black,  how- 
ever, is  not  without  grounds  for  adopting  this  attitude  must 
be  admitted:  While  the  stockman  declares  that  he  must 
kill  to  protect  his  own  life,  he  is  well  aware  of  the  fact  that 
he  and  his  kind  have  committed  nameless  crimes  innumerable 
and  to  a  great  degree  are  responsible  for  the  ceaseless  war. 

The  fate  of  the  Tasmanian  aborigines  serves  to  show  how 
quickly  a  people  may  be  exterminated.  In  the  first  years 
of  the  settlement  of  the  island  the  behaviour  of  the  convict 
population  towards  the  natives  was  such  as  to  call  forth  the 
bloodiest  reprisals.  When  a  Commissioner  appointed  by 
Governor  Arthur  inquired  into  the  state  of  affairs  it  elicited 
some  startling  facts.  A  stock-keeper  had  been  punished 
for  cutting  off  a  black's  finger,  which  he  wanted  to  use  as  a 
tobacco  stopper.  Another  had  murdered  the  husband  of  a 
black  woman  he  coveted,  and  had  compelled  the  latter  to 
follow  him  with  the  bleeding  trophy  of  the  man's  head 
dangling  from  her  neck.  A  later  governor  averred  that  he 
could  not  have  believed  it  possible  that  British  subjects 
would  have  so  ignominiously  stained  the  honour  of  their 
country  and  themselves  as  to  have  acted  in  the  manner  they 
did  towards  the  aborigines.  The  evidence  is  overwhelming, 
conclusive.  What  followed  can  be  understood.  The  blacks 
returned  war  with  war,  until  the  whole  island  was  aflame. 
Martial  law  was  now  proclaimed  against  the  natives,  and 
they  were  shot  down  hi  large  numbers. 

—  299  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

One  humane  man,  Mr.  George  Augustus  Robinson,  made 
a  noble  effort  to  stem  this  wholesale  carnage.  He  went 
among  the  blacks  single-handed,  with  a  view  to  establishing 
them  on  a  reservation  under  Government  protection.  His 
overtures  had  little  effect  at  first,  owing  to  the  suspicion 
of  the  natives  and  the  continuous  atrocities  perpetrated  by 
the  capture  parties,  but  after  a  time  he  was  more  success- 
ful. Governor  Arthur  had  ordered  a  great  "  drive."  By 
means  of  what  was  known  as  the  "  Black  Line,"  the  blacks 
were  to  be  swept  across  the  island  into  Tasman's  Peninsula, 
there  to  be  kept  under  a  strong  guard.  The  "  drive  " 
was  a  fiasco,  the  £30,000  that  had  been  expended  thereon 
resulting  in  the  capture  of  one  adult  native  and  a  boy  ! 
Mr.  Robinson  now  renewed  his  missionary  work  with  such 
good  result  that  in  1835  the  remnant  of  the  race — less  than 
three  hundred  in  all — were  gathered  together  in  Flinders 
Island.  In  this  refuge  they  were  tended  by  their  benefactor 
and  the  Government,  but  any  hope  of  preserving  them  that 
might  have  been  entertained  was  doomed  to  disappoint- 
ment. By  1847  they  had  dwindled  to  forty-four.  In  1869 
the  "  last  man,"  William  Lanney,  died,  and  seven  years 
later  his  wife  Truganina,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  race,  fol- 
lowed him. 

There  has  been  no  such  organised  attempt  to  sweep  out 
the  blacks  of  the  mainland.  At  various  times,  however,  the 
country  has  been  the  scene  of  some  massacres  on  a  large 
scale.  Of  these  the  most  notorious  were  Major  Nunn's 
"  campaign  "  and  the  Myall  Creek  affair,  both  of  which 
occurred  in  1838.  One  of  them  was  the  first  event  of  this 
description  to  be  dealt  with  in  a  court  of  justice.  The  recog- 
nition of  a  blackfellow's  right  to  live,  and  of  his  claim  upon 
the  law  of  the  land,  was  a  point  insisted  upon  by  Sir  George 

—  300  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

Gipps,  the  Governor  of  New  South  Wales.  It  was  a  new 
point  to  the  settlers,  and  one  that  by  no  means  commended 
itself  to  them.  The  "  Border  Police  Act,"  which  was 
devised  to  afford  protection  to  the  aborigines  and  put  an 
end  to  their  barbarous  treatment,  was  therefore  a  bone  of 
contention  between  the  settler  population  and  the  Govern- 
ment. 

Major  Nunn,  who  figures  unpleasantly  in  this  war 
against  the  natives,  was  the  commandant  of  the  Mounted 
Police  of  the  colony.  When  the  squatters  of  the  Liverpool 
Plains  asked  for  protection  from  the  blacks  whom  they 
had  provoked  into  hostility,  Nunn  was  ordered  to  see  to 
the  matter.  He  proceeded  to  the  Plains  with  twenty-three 
troopers,  and  augmented  his  force  there  with  a  number  of 
stockmen  from  local  stations.  Then  a  merciless  campaign 
began.  The  reputed  murderers  of  a  farm  servant  were 
given  up  by  the  tribe  attacked,  but  this  did  not  satisfy  the 
stockmen.  They  seized  the  opportunity  to  make  an  end  of 
their  enemies  if  possible,  and  to  their  lasting  discredit  the 
police  joined  in  the  shooting  down  of  the  fugitives.  It  was  a 
most  inglorious  victory.  Governor  Gipps  ordered  an 
inquiry  into  the  affair,  but  delay  after  delay  occurred  and 
nothing  was  done.  A  few  months  later  New  South  Wales  had 
another  sensation  to  talk  about. 

The  actual  scene  of  the  second  massacre  referred  to  was 
the  station  of  a  Mr.  Dangar,  at  Myall  Creek,  about  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  north  of  Sydney.  On  the  run  was 
encamped  a  tribe  of  natives,  some  fifty  strong,  who  were  on 
friendly  terms  with  the  station  hands.  There  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  they  were  otherwise  than  inoffensive.  How- 
ever, during  the  absence  of  the  manager,  Mr.  Hobbs,  a  stock- 
keeper  named  Kilmeister  and  seven  others  made  a  descent 

—  301  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

upon  the  blacks  for  the  purpose  of  "  clearing  them  out." 
It  was  an  unprovoked  attack,  actuated  simply  by  motives 
of  brutality,  although  an  attempt  was  afterwards  made  to 
excuse  it  on  the  score  that  the  tribe  had  been  spearing  cattle. 
The  unfortunate  natives — men,  women  and  children — were 
roped  together,  and  some  of  them  further  secured  by  hand- 
cuffs. Then  they  were  driven  out  some  distance,  to  be 
slaughtered  in  cold  blood  like  sheep. 

But  for  Mr.  Hobbs'  courage  in  taking  action  in  the 
matter  the  raid  might  never  have  been  made  public.  The 
manager  returned  to  the  station  a  few  days  later  and  noticed 
the  absence  of  the  blacks.  He  obtained  an  inkling  of  what 
had  transpired,  paid  a  visit  to  a  distant  part  of  the  run,  and 
saw  a  horrifying  spectacle.  On  the  ground  were  the  remains 
of  at  least  thirty  natives,  the  bodies  mangled  and  half-burnt. 
Some  were  those  of  children.  He  discovered  in  the  course 
of  his  investigation  that  swords  had  been  used  by  the 
butchers  as  well  as  pistols,  and  he  discovered  that  the  blacks 
had  had  no  chance  of  fighting  for  their  lives.  Mr.  Hobbs 
reported  the  matter  to  the  authorities.  Without  any  delay 
an  inquiry  was  instituted,  and  eleven  arrests  were  made. 
A  twelfth  man  implicated  would  have  been  similarly  brought 
to  justice,  but  he  rode  for  his  life  to  the  coast  and  escaped 
in  a  vessel  to  Tasmania,  where  he  lay  hid  until  he  deemed  it 
safe  to  show  himself  once  more  in  New  South  Wales. 

The  trial  of  the  eleven  murderers  excited  widespread 
interest.  It  was  a  daring  thing  in  the  face  of  public  opinion 
to  arraign  white  men  on  a  charge  of  murdering  blacks.  The 
Government,  however,  was  determined  to  strike  a  blow  at 
the  barbarism  of  the  day.  It  sat  tight  and  sifted  the  evi- 
dence to  the  bottom.  And  the  evidence  was  damning.  A 
station  hand  told  a  straightforward  tale  of  how  the  party 

—  302  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

of  stockmen  had  carried  away  the  blacks,  of  how  he  had 
heard  the  reports  of  firearms,  and  of  how  the  men  had 
returned  with  blood-stained  swords.  The  attempt  to 
destroy  all  signs  of  the  deed  by  fire  was  then  described. 
"  Kilmeister  said  in  the  morning  (of  the  next  day)  that  he 
was  going  after  his  horse  which  he  had  left  down  the  creek. 
The  smoke  was  from  the  creek.  I  never  went  to  the  place  ; 
I  did  not  like  to  go.  Davey  went  as  he  came  back.  Kil- 
meister was  away  in  the  middle  of  the  day  ;  he  said  the  horse 
was  knocked  up  and  not  able  to  walk.  I  saw  him  ;  he  could 
have  caught  him  anywhere.  I  saw  the  smoke  pretty  well 
all  day  ;  at  the  first  beginning  there  was  a  great  smoke  ; 
in  the  after  part  of  the  day  there  was  not  much."  What 
the  fire  was  unable  to  consume  was  left  to  other  destroyers. 
There  were  eagles,  hawks,  birds  of  prey  of  all  kinds,  hovering 
over  the  place.  Mr.  Hobbs  saw  them  when  he  went  out. 

In  Sydney  at  the  time  of  the  trial  there  was  much  loud 
talk.  The  prisoners  had  many  sympathisers,  and  no  doubt 
thought  that  their  acquittal  was  certain.  "  We  were  not 
aware,"  they  urged,  "  that  in  killing  blacks  we  were  violat- 
ing the  law,  as  it  had  been  so  frequently  done  in  the  colony 
before . ' '  This  plea  availed  them  not.  Four  of  them,  indeed, 
were  discharged  for  want  of  evidence  that  they  had 
actually  taken  part  in  the  massacre,  but  the  others  were 
found  guilty.  They  were  sentenced  to  death  and  were 
hanged,  the  whole  seven  of  them  ;  and  squatterdom  took  the 
lesson  to  heart. 

In  Queensland,  in  the  fifties  and  sixties,  there  was  similar 
wanton  killing  of  the  blacks.  It  is  an  unpleasant  chapter 
of  pioneering  history.  To  ride  down  and  shoot  a  mob  of 
natives  was  sport  for  those  who  supported  the  policy  of 
extermination.  And  it  was  considered  a.  legitimate  method 

—  303  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

to  free  a  run  of  blacks,  as  one  would  free  a  fowl  run  of  rats,  by 
poison.  There  are  cases  on  record  in  which  a  barrel  of  flour 
containing  arsenic  was  presented  to  the  unsuspecting  victims, 
who  died  in  scores  and  in  no  little  agony.  Nor  were  the 
police — the  native  mounted  police — of  the  day  above  re- 
proach. In  the  capture  and  treatment  of  prisoners  they 
were  guilty  of  much  brutality.  It  was,  perhaps,  too  much 
to  expect  that  a  native  would  refrain  from  the  opportunity 
of  hunting  and  killing  members  of  another  tribe,  his  natural 
enemies.  The  black  troopers  found  the  work  to  their 
liking. 

At  the  present  time  the  few  thousands  of  natives  left  in 
Australia  are  being  taken  care  of  by  the  Government  so  far 
as  is  possible.  Each  State  has  its  Aborigines  Protection 
Board.  At  various  points  in  the  country  mission  stations 
have  been  established,  at  which  the  blacks  are  housed  and  fed, 
and  are  induced  to  employ  themselves  in  profitable  labour, 
while  their  children  are  taught  in  native  schools.  It  is  an 
uphill  task,  for  the  black  does  not  take  kindly  to  regular 
work.  The  Government  agents  are  nevertheless  instru- 
mental in  providing  a  great  deal  of  relief,  and  by  their  vigi- 
lance— assisted  as  they  are  by  the  mounted  police — they 
succeed  in  checking  many  of  the  prevalent  abuses. 

In  New  South  Wales  the  latest  census  returns  give  the 
number  of  aboriginals  as  2,123  full-bloods  and  5,247  half- 
castes,  making  a  total  of  7,370.  Among  the  former  there 
has  been  a  marked  decrease,  but  the  latter  show  an  increase 
on  previous  years.  Under  the  new  Aborigines  Bill  that  has 
passed  through  the  Legislature  the  Government  are  hopeful 
of  bettering  the  condition  of  the  natives.  The  State  Pro- 
tector of  Aborigines  reports  as  follows  : — 

"  Though  much  has  been  done  in  the  interests  of  the 
—  304  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

aborigines  since  the  constitution  of  the  Board,  by  erecting 
huts  and  providing  rations  and  other  assistance,  it  has  for 
some  time  been  felt  that  the  Board's  efforts  were  to  a  certain 
extent  unsatisfactory,  inasmuch  as,  in  the  absence  of  legis- 
lative sanction,  they  were  powerless  to  adopt  a  settled  policy 
for  want  of  the  necessary  powers  to  carry  it  to  a  successful 
issue.  For  instance,  they  had  really  no  control  over  the 
reserves,  and  the  residents  could  set  authority  at  defiance, 
the  only  available  punishment  being  the  stoppage  of  rations 
and  other  assistance.  Now  that  they  have  been  clothed 
with  ample  powers,  the  Board  propose  making  radical 
changes  in  the  methods  of  dealing  with  the  aboriginal  popu- 
lation, more  especially  in  the  direction  of  compelling  all 
the  able-bodied  to  shift  for  themselves,  and  of  training  the 
young  so  that  they  may  become  useful  members  of  the  State. 
"  The  Act,  which  will  come  into  operation  on  a  date  to  be 
fixed  by  proclamation,  provides  for  the  constitution  of  the 
Board,  the  appointment  of  local  committees,  guardians,  and 
other  officers,  and  their  respective  duties.  The  control  of  all 
reserves,  with  buildings  and  other  property  thereon,  is 
vested  in  the  Board,  who  are  given  power  to  remove  any 
aboriginal  guilty  of  any  misconduct,  or  who,  in  their  opinion, 
should  be  earning  a  living  away  from  such  reserve.  The 
law  in  regard  to  the  supply  of  liquor  to  aborigines  is  amended, 
and  the  provisions  of  Section  4  (76)  of  the  '  Vagrancy  Act, 
1902,'  relating  to  the  offence  of  '  wandering  with  aborigines  ' 
re-enacted.  Machinery  is  provided  for  the  apprenticeship 
of  aboriginal  children,  and  the  parents  of  aboriginal 
children  made  responsible  for  their  maintenance.  Power  is 
given  to'  remove  any  aboriginal  from  the  vicinity  of  any 
reserve,  town,  or  township  to  such  distance  therefrom  as 
the  Board  may  direct.  It  is  made  an  offence  for  any 

—  305  —  x 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

unauthorised  person  to  have  possession  of  any  article  issued 
by  the  Government  or  the  Board  for  the  use  of  the  aborigines. 
Provision  is  also  made  for  the  inspection  of  aboriginal  stations 
and  reserves." 

Victoria  includes  173  full-blood  natives  and  80  half-castes, 
so  that  the  work  is  lighter  than  that  of  her  neighbours.  Six 
reserves  making  a  total  area  of  9,039  acres  have  been  set 
apart  for  the  blacks,  who  possess  cattle  and  sheep  and  who, 
generally  speaking,  work  their  land  in  a  satisfactory  manner. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  South  Australia  and  Western 
Australia  that  we  find  the  native  question  pressing  more 
heavily.  In  the  former  province,  according  to  the  last 
census,  the  aboriginal  population  (exclusive  of  the  Northern 
Territory)  was — 

Blacks       .  ,'    '.'  .<rT    ''.''.'.          .      2,810 
Half-castes  800 


3,610 

The  same  tale  of  increase  and  decrease  is  told  here.  The 
full-bloods  are  slowly  but  surely  falling  away  in  numbers. 
Five  mission  stations  are  under  the  control  of  the  Board, 
and  here  every  endeavour  is  made  to  keep  the  natives  in 
settled  conditions.  That  there  is  much  yet  to  be  done  is 
evident  from  the  official  report.  The  need  of  an  Act  for 
the  protection  and  control  of  the  aborigines  and  half-castes 
has  been  greatly  felt,  but  it  is  hoped  this  will  be  met  by  the 
passing  of  the  Bill  now  before  Parliament. 

The  increasing  proportion  of  half-castes  leads  the  State 
"  Protector  "  to  urge  the  necessity  of  steps  being  taken  to 
convert  these  people  into  useful  members  of  the  community, 
instead  of  allowing  them  to  grow  up  in  the  black  camps, 
where  they  acquire  the  lazy  habits  of  the  aborigines,  which 

—  306  — 


THE  ABORIGINES 

unfits  them  for  any  regular  occupation.  "  I  am  still  firmly 
of  opinion,"  he  says,  "  that  the  very  best  way  is  to  treat  them 
as  neglected  children,  and  have  them  placed  under  the  care 
and  control  of  the  State  Children's  Department  until  they 
reach  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  by  which  time  they  should 
be  able  to  earn  their  own  living  and  should  no  longer  be 
considered  or  treated  as  aborigines.  The  boys  should  be 
taught  trades,  and  the  girls  trades  or  domestic  duties.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  left  to  wander  and  grow  up  with  the 
aborigines  they  and  their  offspring  will  become  an  ever- 
increasing  burden.  At  present,  in  many  parts  of  the  State, 
may  be  seen  practically  white  males  and  females  squatting 
in  blacks'  camps.  On  the  mission  stations  the  same  sort  of 
thing  exists  after  the  children  have  passed  the  school-going 
age,  the  very  time  when  they  should  be  taught  to  become 
self -supporting . ' ' 

South  Australia's  most  unmanageable  black  dependants 
have  been,  of  course,  the  natives  of  the  far  north.  Of  this 
burden  the  State  will  now  be  relieved  by  the  new  constitu- 
tion of  the  Northern  Territory.  In  that  wild  and  sparsely- 
settled  portion  of  the  continent  the  pacification  of  the  native 
tribes  must  necessarily  progress  slowly. 

In  Western  Australia,  where  the  aborigines  reach  their 
highest  number  (over  20,000),  the  chief  difficulties  present 
themselves  in  the  north-western  districts.  The  black  of  the 
Kimberleys  is  a  constant  source  of  trouble  through  his 
predilection  for  cattle-killing.  To  combat  this  evil,  native 
settlements  are  being  established  whereon  the  blacks  may 
accumulate  their  own  herds,  and  thus  provide  themselves 
with  meat  instead  of  at  the  expense  of  their  white  neigh- 
bours. Of  the  regularly  established  mission  stations  there 
are  eight,  but  the  number  of  natives  in  residence  there  is  not 

—  307  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

large.  The  majority  lead  a  wandering  existence,  which 
renders  the  task  of  their  supervision  a  very  difficult  matter.1 
As  in  the  Northern  Territory,  the  mounted  police  do  a 
very  big  share  of  the  work.  The  detailed  reports  sent  in 
from  all  quarters  testify  to  the  vigilance  exercised  with  re- 
gard to  natives  employed  on  stations,  and  to  the  care  that 
is  taken  to  relieve  necessitous  cases.  The  troopers  patrol 
the  country  as  thoroughly  as  their  numbers  permit.  Very 
few  cases  of  crime  and  ill-treatment  escape  their  notice, 
and  when  one  takes  into  consideration  the  immense  area  to 
be  covered,  together  with  the  natural  difficulties  of  the 
country  traversed,  their  record  in  all  respects  is  one  to  be 
proud  of.  How  the  West  Australian  police  trooper  per- 
forms these  and  other  arduous  duties  is  the  subject  of  our 
next  chapter. 

1  Under  the  provisions  of  "  The  Aborigines  Act,  1905,"  the  sum  of 
£10,000  out  of  the  Consolidated  Revenue  Fund  is.  annually  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  the  Aborigines  Department,  in  addition  to  any  other 
moneys  that  may  be  provided  by  Parliament.  The  total  expenditure  by 
the  Department  during  the  year  1908-9  was  £22,559  (being  £4,609  more 
than  for  the  previous  year),  whilst  the  total  expenditure  on  behalf  of  the 
natives  during  the  past  ten  years  has  reached  the  large  sum  of  £139,247. 

The  total  subsidy  paid  to  missions  of  different  denominations  through- 
out the  State  last  year  amounted  to  over  £2,000,  being  divided  amongst 
the  following  :  Beagle  Bay,  New  Norcia,  Salvation  Army  Home,  Swan 
Native  and  Half-castes,  Ellensbrook,  and  the  Australian  Aborigines' 
Mission.  All  these  missions  are  doing  good  work  among  the  rising  genera- 
tion of  the  full-blooded  and  half-caste  natives.  The  Drysdale  Mission, 
which  is  a  branch  of  the  New  Norcia,  started  operations  in  the  far 
North  in  1908,  the  country  being  practically  uninhabited  except  by 
aborigines.  The  Government  have  given  them  a  grant  of  20,000  acres, 
which  can  be  held  for  all  time,  provided  it  is  used  for  the  purpose  of 
a  mission  station.  A  similar  grant  has  also  been  given  to  the  Beagle 
Bay  Mission,  under  like  conditions.  These  grants  will  allow  of  the  mission 
work  being  extended  in  the  direction  of  tropical  cultivation,  and  of  the 
formation  of  native  settlements  on  the  same  lines  as  those  adopted  by  some 
of  the  mis -ions  in  the  other  States.  (Report  of  Western  Australian 
Aborigines  Protection  Board,) 


—  308  — 


CHAPTER   XVII 

WESTERN   AUSTRALIA 

Days  of  settlement — Convicts  introduced — A  military  guard — Police  con- 
stables appointed — Superintendent  Conroy — The  "  Enrolled  Force  " — 
The  Police  Act  of  1861 — Superintendent  Hogan — Captain  Smith.Com- 
missioner — Lieut.-Colonel  Phillips — Captain  Fred  A.  Hare — Distribu- 
tion of  the  force — The  north-west — Native  troubles — "Soaks  "  and 
"  Gnamma  holes"  —  A  tragedy  of  thirst — Trooper  Richardson's 
murder — "  Pigeon  "  at  large — In  the  Barrier  Range — Superintendent 
Lawrence — The  Jasper  murder  — "  Major  " — Police  rewards — Arms 
and  uniform — Conditions  of  appointment — Pay — The  trooper  to-day. 

WE  have  already  seen  how  Western  Australia  was  first 
settled  in  1829,  when  Captain  Fremantle  hoisted 
the  British  flag  on  its  shores. 1  Thereafter  for  many  years  the 
story  of  the  colony's  progress  is  one  of  continuous  struggle 
against  adversity,  the  emigrants  clustering  in  and  around 
Perth  and  rarely  venturing  forth  into  the  unknown  country 
beyond  without  incurring  disaster.  The  scheme  under  which 
the  new  colony  was  launched  provided  for  grants  of  land  to 
intending  settlers  ;  every  one  was  to  be  a  landed  proprietor, 
in  fact ;  and  too  many  began  with  estates  that  were  un- 
manageably big.  One  gentleman,  we  read,  was  given  250,000 
acres,  "  with  a  possible  extension  to  1,000,000  acres,"  and 
set  about  farming  and  stock-raising  on  a  large  scale  with 
three  hundred  servants.  He  lost  his  all.  The  soil  of  the 
locality  was  infertile,  his  stock  strayed  away  or  died  in  the 
scrub,  the  servants  deserted,  partly  through  fear  of  the 

1  See  page  30. 
—  309  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


hostile  blacks,and  the  place  went  to  rack  and  ruin.  It  was 
a  case  typical  of  many  others. 

Of  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  colony's  history  there  is 
little  of  event  to  record.  No  marked  change  in  development 
occurred  until  1850,  when  the  settlers  abandoned  their 
former  views  on  the  subject  and  frankly  asked  the  home 
authorities  for  convict  labour.  Previously  the  experiment 
had  been  made  of  taking  boys  sent  out  from  the  Parkhurst 
reformatory.  There  were  to  be  no  actual  convicts,  it  was 
said,  no  repetition  of  the  troubles  of  New  South  Wales  ;  but 
the  acceptance  of  these  so-called  "  apprentices,"  proved  to 
be  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge.  A  few  years  of  stagnation 
convinced  the  colonists  that  convict  labour  was  preferable 
to  none  at  all,  and  Earl  Grey,  the  Colonial  Secretary,  was 
petitioned  accordingly.  So  the  convicts  came,  several  thou- 
sands of  them,  between  the  years  1850  and  1868. 1  And 
Western  Australia  went  ahead  to  expand  and  establish  her- 
self firmly  upon  her  feet. 

»  With  all  its  apparent  advantages  the  system  of  assigning 
convict-servants  to  the  colonists  brought  grave  evils  in  its 
train.  Scenes  took  place  similar  to  those  that  had  been 
witnessed  in  the  older  colonies  under  the  same  conditions. 

1  The  Australian  Dictionary  of  Dates  gives  the  total  number  of  convicts 
sent  to  Australia,  in  the  period  from  1787  to  1868,  as  follows — 


Colony. 

Period. 

Number  of  Convicts  landed. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

New  South  Wales    . 
Van  Diemen's  Land 
Western  Australia  . 

Total  .... 

1788-1839 
1803-1853 
1850-1868 

51,082 
56,042 
9,718 

8,706 
11,613 

59,788 
67,655 
9,718 

116,842 

20,319 

137,161 

—  310  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

Prisoners  broke  gaol,  committed  robberies  and  worse 
crimes,  even  took  to  the  bush  for  what  time  they  could 
prey  on  their  neighbours.  Outside  the  towns  the  brutality 
of  the  assigned  men  quickly  caused  trouble  with  the 
natives.  Reprisals  of  a  savage  nature  became  more  and 
more  frequent.  Up  in  the  Murchison  country,  and  farther 
north  where  many  of  the  early  settlers  lived  in  carts  until 
their  homesteads  were  erected,  a  number  of  outrages  were 
perpetrated.  At  first  only  the  stock  was  speared  or  stolen 
by  the  blacks.  It  was  a  common  sight  to  see  cattle  in  the 
bush  with  broken  pieces  of  spears  sticking  in  their  sides. 
From  that  stage  it  was  but  a  step  to  attacking  the  settlers 
themselves. 

It  is  from  this  period  that  the  history  of  the  mounted 
police  of  Western  Australia  dates.  In  1848,  when  Captain 
Fitzgerald,  R.N.,  was  Governor  in  succession  to  Colonel 
Irwin,1  the  Imperial  Government  had  grudgingly  sent  out 
a  small  military  guard  to  protect  the  community.  The 
soldiers  performed  what  police  duty  was  necessary  until 
the  coming  of  the  convicts,  with  whom,  of  course,  were  a 
number  of  warders.  In  1850  police  constables  were  ap- 
pointed to  various  districts,  ranging  from  Albany  in  the 
south  to  Geraldton  in  the  north.  By  1852  the  force  had 
grown  to  eighty-seven  all  told,  being  distinguished  under 
two  heads — native  and  convict.  The  "  native  "  police 
numbered  twenty-four,  of  whom  eleven  were  blacks.  In 
this  body  were  nine  white  troopers  and  the  same  number 
of  mounted  blacks.  The  convict  police  out  of  sixty-three 
members  had  twenty  mounted  men.  In  the  same  year 
Governor  Fitzgerald  obtained  permission  to  combine  these 

1  The  earlier  Governors  were:  Captain  James  Stirling,  R.N.  (1829), 
John  Hutt  (1839),  and  Colonel  Clarke  (1845). 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

two  forces  into  one,  with  power  to  increase  the  strength. 
The  first  Superintendent  of  Police  was  meanwhile  appointed 
in  the  person  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Conroy,  who  shortly  after  estab- 
lished the  force  on  a  more  permanent  basis.  The  police 
at  this  period,  it  should  be  mentioned,  were  paid  from  the 
Convict  Funds. 

Known  as  the  "  Enrolled  Force,"  and  composed  largely 
of  men  who  had  served  in  the  army  or  the  Royal  Irish  Con- 
stabulary, these  policemen  had  the  convict  gangs  par- 
ticularly under  their  eyes.  The  prison  parties  were  mostly 
employed  in  making  roads,  and  the  troopers'  duty  was  to 
ride  from  one  gang  to  another  to  see  that  all  was  well.  Fre- 
quently they  had  to  pass  on  prisoners  from  one  patrol  party 
to  another  in  transferring  the  same  across  country,  as,  for 
example,  from  Fremantle  to  Perth,  from  Perth  to  Guildford, 
and  so  on.  With  the  convicts  also  were  the  regular  warders, 
who  were  assisted  by  good-conduct  prisoners  deputed  to  act 
as  special  constables.  At  times  the  temptation  to  escape 
was  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  and  convict  after  convict  made 
a  vain  attempt  to  gain  freedom  in  the  bush.  Only  one  or 
two  ever  succeeded  in  getting  away  to  Adelaide,  covering 
the  whole  distance  on  foot.  To  the  mounted  police  with 
their  black  trackers  fell  the  task  of  hunting  down  these  poor 
wretches,  and  others,  known  as  absconders,"  who  had  been 
assigned  to  settlers  on  ticket-of-leave  and  who  similarly 
endeavoured  to  break  from  bondage. 

In  these  early  years  the  police  were  regulated  by  three 
ordinances.1  By  the  end  of  1861  it  became  essential  to 
reorganise  the  force,  and  a  Police  Act  (25  Victoria,  No.  15) 
was  passed.  This  statute  made  provision  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Superintendent  to  control  the  force  for  duty  in 

1  12  Victoria,  No.  20  ;  16  Victoria,  No.  19  ;  and  23  Victoria,  No.  6. 
—  312  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

different  parts  of  the  State,  and  for  the  appointment  of 
Inspectors,  Sub-Inspectors,  Sub-Officers  and  men.  The 
Chief  of  Police  of  this  time  was  Superintendent  W.  Hogan, 
who  had  succeeded  Sir  A.  T.  C.  Campbell  (the  successor  to 
Mr.  Conroy)  in  January  1861.  The  earliest  consecutive 
departmental  records  date  from  Superintendent  Hogan's 
accession  to  office,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  force  as 
now  constituted  owed  its  origin  to  him. 

For  ten  months,  from  July  1866  to  April  1867,  Major 
R.  H.  Crampton  held  the  position  of  Acting  Superintendent 
of  Police,  pending  the  decision  of  the  Government  with 
regard  to  the  next  appointment.  Eventually  Mr.  G.  E.  C. 
Hare  was  selected,  this  officer  continuing  in  office  until  May 
1871.  He  was  then  succeeded  by  Captain  M.  S.  Smith,  in 
whose  reign  the  title  of  the  head  of  the  police  force  was 
changed  from  Superintendent  to  Commissioner. 

On  the  death  of  Captain  Smith  in  1887  the  post  was 
offered  to  Lieut.-Colonel  G.  B.  Phillips,  who  acted  as  Com- 
missioner until  1900.  Within  these  few  years  the  colony 
made  great  strides  owing  to  the  discovery  of  the  rich  gold- 
fields  at  Cue,  Coolgardie  and  Kalgoorlie.  To  cope  with 
these  new  conditions  and  the  sudden  increase  in  population 
the  force  was  considerably  augmented,  especially  in  the 
mounted  branch.  Patrols  and  escorts  for  gold  convoys 
were  supplied  by  the  police,  while  a  strict  surveillance  was 
kept  over  the  diggings.  This  period,  however,  is  dealt  with 
in  a  separate  chapter,  and  need  not  detain  us  here. 

From  1900  down  to  the  present  time  the  Chief  of  Police 
has  been  Captain  Fred  A.  Hare,  who,  previous  to  his  appoint- 
ment, had  been  acting  as  Warden  of  the  East  Coolgardie 
Goldfields.  Captain  Hare  entered  the  service  in  1882  to 
become  Inspector  for  the  Southern  Districts,  but  after  a 

—  313  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

term  as  private  secretary  and  A.D.C.  to  Governor  Sir 
Frederick  Napier  Broome,  he  accepted  the  post  of  Govern- 
ment Resident  at  Wyndham,  in  the  north-west.  Thence 
he  was  transferred  to  Albany,  in  the  south,  in  1887,  after 
which  he  officiated  as  Resident  Magistrate  at  York  until  his 
appointment  as  Goldfields  Warden. 

Under  Commissioner  Hare's  control  the  police  force  of 
the  colony  has  been  brought  to  a  high  pitch  of  efficiency. 
Despite  the  immense  area  to  be  covered — Western  Australia 
embraces  975,920  square  miles — there  are  only  461  police 
officers  and  men  to  undertake  the  work,  yet  it  is  done,  and 
done  well.  The  trooper  police,  the  mounted  men,  alone 
number  about  180,  exclusive  of  officers.  For  the  most  part 
they  are  distributed  over  the  western  and  northern  districts 
where  there  is  need  for  patrols.  At  Geraldton  there  is  one 
trooper  ;  Dongarra,  Minginew  and  Yalgoo  have  one  each ;  in 
the  Murchison  country  there  is  one  stationed  at  Cue,  while 
at  Nannine  there  are  three,  at  Meekatharra  three,  at  Wiluna 
two,  and  so  on.1  One  man  must  watch  over  a  whole  district 
and  must  play  many  parts  in  the  execution  of  his  duty. 
Western  Australia  is  no  exception  to  the  rule  in  calling 
upon  her  police  to  perform  a  variety  of  roles.  In  addition 
to  the  ordinary  criminal  work  the  trooper  may  have  to 
act  as  Clerk  of  Courts,  Mining  Registrar  or  Crown  Lands 
Inspector,  collect  statistics  relating  to  stock,  crops,  and  the 
area  of  land  under  cultivation,  and  make  inquiries  in  con- 
nection with  immigration,  taxation,  labour  conditions,  and 

1  The  distribution  of  the  mounted  police — non-commissioned  officers 
and  men — over  the  twelve  divisions  of  the  State  is  as  follows  :  Metro- 
politan, 27  ;  Fremantle,  10 ;  Swan,  7  ;  South- Western,  17  ;  Eastern, 
12  ;  Western,  15  ;  Albany,  6  ;  N.  Coolgardie,  14  ;  E.  Coolgardie,  16  ;  Mur- 
chison, 19 ;  Roebourne,  13  ;  Kimberley,  23.  There  are  also  51  native 
trackers  employed. 

—  314  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

in  fact  anything  about  which  any  Government  Department 
may  demand  information. 

As  is  the  case  in  South  Australia  and  Queensland,  the 
trooper  in  the  western  State  meets  with  his  hardest  work  in 
the  outlands,  where  the  aboriginal  population  still  roams 
the  country.  The  north-western  portion  of  West  Australia 
was  explored  fitfully  by  Surveyor-General  Roe,  by  Grey, 
Warburton,  and  Giles  in  the  early  days  of  settlement,  but 
the  first  expedition  to  really  make  known  the  value  of  the 
northern  districts  was  that  led  by  Mr.  Alexander  Forrest, 
a  brother  of  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Forrest,  P.O.,  G.C.M.G. 
In  1879  the  party,  consisting  of  six  white  men  and  two  natives, 
explored  the  great  Fitzroy  River,  discovered  and  named  the 
King  Leopold  Ranges,  and  traversed  a  large  portion  of  the 
country  round  the  Ord  River.  The  region  was  found  to  be 
rich  in  pastoral  land,  and  it  was  not  long  before  cattle  and 
sheep  stations  were  being  established  there.  A  little  later, 
in  1884,  it  received  a  further  impetus  through  the  discovery 
of  the  Kimberley  goldfield,  which  has  been  worked  with  great 
success. 

In  the  record  of  mounted  police  work  in  these  northern 
districts  of  the  State  the  natives  figure  prominently.  With 
the  advent  of  stockmen  came  many  opportunities  to  "  lift  " 
cattle,  and  as  the  blacks  grew  more  daring  the  raids  increased 
in  frequency.  The  Kimberley  black  is  as  good  a  specimen 
of  his  race  as  can  be  found  in  the  whole  of  the  continent.  He 
is  well-developed  physically,  and  has  been  a  fighting  man 
"  from  way  back."  The  police  were  soon  called  out  to 
check  the  depredations  of  the  cattle-killers,  and  to  protect 
the  scattered  stations  from  attacks.  Among  the  more 
serious  crimes  of  the  eighties  was  the  murder  of  Mr.  John 
Durack,  a  well-known  pioneer  of  the  Ord  River  district. 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Sergeant  Truslove  and  Trooper  Strickland  got  out  after  the 
blacks  in  this  instance,  and,  after  being  nearly  drowned  hi  a 
flooded  stream,  had  a  narrow  escape  from  dying  of  starvation 
and  thirst  in  the  wilds.  There  was,  too,  the  murder  of  Dr. 
Vines  at  Braeside,  in  the  Roebourne  district.  The  station 
was  attacked  by  natives  in  September  of  1889,  and  its  occu- 
pants speared.  For  this  crime  Nowarong,  Dandy  Jim  and 
other  aboriginals  were  executed. 

The  killing  of  Stephen  Grace,  prospector,  in  1907  will 
be  remembered  by  many  people.  Grace  was  hi  camp  with 
three  other  men  in  the  Mackay  Ranges,  two  hundred  miles 
north  of  Wiluna,  and  was  visited  by  natives,  to  whom  food 
was  given.  In  return  for  this  kindness  the  little  party  was 
later  surprised,  the  blacks  leaping  upon  them  with  short 
stabbing  spears.  Grace  and  another  man  were  both 
wounded,  the  former,  as  it  proved,  mortally.  For  the 
purpose  of  hunting  down  the  murderers  the  Government 
requisitioned  the  services  of  Mr.  Baumgarten,  of  the  Mines 
Water  Supply  Department,  and  several  of  his  camels.  The 
country  was  thickly  covered  with  spinif  ex,  and  was  unsuitable 
for  horses.  Thanks  to  these  valuable  aids  Constable  Doody 
was  enabled  to  get  upon  the  track  of  the  culprits. 

The  reference  above  to  the  perils  experienced  by  mounted 
policemen  in  traversing  difficult  country  reminds  us  of  the 
provision  that  is  made,  wherever  possible,  for  a  water 
supply  in  an  otherwise  arid  region.  What  are  known  as 
"  soaks  "  are  established  at  various  points,  and  no  traveller 
would  be  wise  to  venture  any  great  distance  without  proper 
knowledge  of  these  essentials  to  his  existence. 

A  "  soak  "  is  formed  by  digging  away  the  sand  from  the 
base  of  a  granite  rock,  in  some  hollow  of  which  below  the 
surface  drainage  water  is  almost  sure  to  be  found.  When 

-316  - 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

a  selector  looks  round  for  water  in  an  inland  district  where 
he  pitches  his  camp,  his  first  thought  is  for  a  rock  of  this 
description.  In  many  cases  the  natives  have  made  "  soaks  " 
for  their  own  use,  scraping  out  the  sand  with  their  hands, 
and  they  take  care  to  keep  them  always  open.  Some  such 
ready-made  reservoirs  are  now  being  rendered  more  per- 
manent by  Government  engineers,  who  enclose  the  basin  in 
order  to  prevent  any  unnecessary  leakage  of  the  water. 

In  these  same  rock  formations,  which  are  met  with  in 
various  parts  of  the  interior  desert  country,  there  are  fre- 
quently what  are  called  "  gnamma  holes."  These  depres- 
sions in  the  granite  naturally  vary  considerably  in  size. 
They  may  be  one  or  several  feet  in  diameter  and  of  shallow 
or  great  depth.  A  large  "  gnamma  hole  "  is  capable  of 
holding  20,000  gallons.  The  origin  of  the  holes  is  somewhat 
of  a  puzzle  to  scientists.  "  It  looks,"  says  one  writer,  "  as 
if  their  cause  was  the  decomposing  of  a  belt  of  iron-stone 
in  the  granite,  or  a  dyke  composed  of  softer  material,  which 
the  natives  may  have  helped  to  clear  out.  The  rock  in 
which  they  are  formed  is  often  high  above  the  surrounding 
plains,  and  shows  no  signs  of  ever  having  been  caused  by 
erosion  from  water.  They  only  get  filled  by  surface  drain- 
age when  a  heavy  thunderstorm  breaks  over  them." 

It  was  by  a  "  soak  "  in  the  Murchison  country  some  years 
ago  that  a  grim  tragedy  was  enacted.  A  party  of  drovers 
was  making  northward  with  three  hundred  head  of  cattle 
and  a  number  of  horses.  After  striking  camp  one  day  two 
brothers  named  Clarkson  pushed  ahead  of  the  rest  and  rode 
in  the  direction  of  a  well-known  water-hole.  The  season, 
however,  had  been  an  exceptionally  dry  one,  and  the  rock 
bottom  stared  them  in  the  face  without  a  vestige  of  moistur* 
on  it.  One  of  the  two  men  dropped  exhausted  by  the  hole, 

—  317  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

overcome  by  the  heat  and  the  torments  of  thirst.  The 
other  bravely  struggled  on  in  the  hope  of  finding  another 
"  soak,"  and  of  so  saving  both  their  lives.  He  found  it, 
but  he  never  returned.  When  a  search  party,  including 
two  mounted  policemen,  got  upon  the  trail,  they  discovered 
a  tree  to  which  was  fastened  a  piece  of  paper  with  the  mes- 
sage :  "  It  is  5  o'clock.  Am  pushing  on  for  water.  Will 
come  back."  A  little  farther  on,  near  a  "  soak,"  from 
which  he  had  filled  his  water-bag,  was  his  dead  body.  At 
the  moment  of  success  he  had  been  speared  by  a  hostile 
mob  of  blacks.  His  brother,  meanwhile,  had  died  where  he 
had  thrown  himself  down. 

The  searchers  in  time  rounded  up  the  murderers,  who 
were  holding  a  triumphant  corrobboree,  and  were  offered 
three  boys  as  the  alleged  culprits.  However,  further 
investigation  resulted  in  the  capture  of  an  old  black  who 
tremblingly  confessed  to  the  deed.  He  was  carried  off,  but 
was  subsequently  released,  as  the  evidence  against  him 
was  deemed  insufficient. 

In  the  calendar  of  native  crime  which  we  are  passing 
under  review  the  most  sensational  case,  undoubtedly,  is 
that  in  which  a  trooper  policeman  named  Richardson  met 
his  death.  This  occurred  in  1894.  Richardson,  who  was 
stationed  in  the  Robinson  River  district,  had  been  out  to 
arrest  natives  wanted  for  cattle-killing  and  for  absconding 
from  gaol.  He  had  collected  in  all  seventeen  prisoners, 
among  them  "  some  of  the  worst  characters  on  the  River." 
All  were  chained  together  in  a  line.  On  the  way  back  to 
Derby  the  constable  learnt  that  one  Eelemarra,  or  "  Paddy," 
a  notoriously  bad  lot,  was  in  the  neighbourhood,"  and  he 
determined  to  capture  him.  Accordingly,  he  detailed  two 
native  assistants,  "  Pigeon  "  and  "  Captain,"  to  carry  out 

-318- 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

the  arrest.  The  two  trackers  performed  their  duty  success- 
fully, but  while  bringing  back  their  man  to  the  chain-gang 
Pigeon  concocted  a  treacherous  plot.  Richardson  was  alone 
and  at  their  mercy  ;  he  was  weak,  too,  having  barely 
recovered  from  an  attack  of  fever.  If  the  others  joined  him 
the  trooper's  death  would  be  easily  accomplished  and  the 
prisoners — many  of  them  his  friends — could  be  freed. 

To  win  over  Captain  and  Eelemarra  to  this  plan  was  an 
easy  matter.  Nor  was  it  difficult  to  find  an  opportunity  to 
catch  Richardson  napping.  Soon  after  being  rejoined  by 
his  assistants,  the  trooper  ordered  a  mid-day  halt  at  Lillma- 
loora,  an  old  disused  station  which  was  often  occupied  by 
the  police  as  a  rest-house.  The  building  had  a  long  central 
passage  running  from  front  to  back.  In  this  sheltered  place 
he  lay  down  to  rest,  feeling  every  confidence  in  his  boys, 
Pigeon  and  Captain,  who  remained  outside  hi  charge  of  the 
prisoners.  Pigeon,  it  may  be  said,  had  saved  his  master's 
life  only  a  few  weeks  previously  when  the  two  had  been 
attacked  by  some  Barker  natives,  and  the  possibility  of 
treachery  never  entered  the  policeman's  head. 

So  Richardson  stretched  himself  on  the  cool  floor  of  the 
passage,  through  which  a  soft,  pleasant  breeze  was  blowing, 
and  read  a  copy  of  the  Police  Gazette  until  he  dozed.  Then 
they  killed  him.  Pigeon,  it  is  presumed,  stood  right  over 
the  prostrate  man  and  shot  him  through  the  forehead  with 
a  Winchester  rifle.  Captain  and  Eelemarra  used  a  revolver 
not  that  there  was  any  need  to  so  far  as  poor  Richardson 
was  concerned,  but  in  order  to  implicate  them  in  the  crime 
Pigeon  insisted  on  their  firing  ;  he  had  no  intention  of 
taking  the  onus  of  the  affair  on  his  own  shoulders  alone. 
After  the  deed  was  accomplished  the  irons  were  struck  off 
the  waiting  prisoners,  and  all  made  off  into  the  hills. 

—  319  ~ 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

With  the  party,  be  it  noted,  were  several  gins,  from  whom, 
eventually,  the  details  of  the  murder  were  obtained. 

The  next  event  in  this  aboriginal  drama  was  the  traged} 
of  Burke  and  Gibbs.  These  two  men  and  another,  Fred 
Edgar  by  name,  were  travelling  to  the  Upper  Fitzroy  with 
a  herd  of  five  hundred  cattle  and  a  dray.  On  the  morning 
of  November  8,  only  five  days  after  the  black  business  at 
Lillmaloora,  the  three  drovers  had  a  quarrel.  Edgar,  who 
knew  of  Richardson's  murder,  objected  to  his  companions 
not  carrying  firearms.  He,  by  the  way,  rode  in  the  dray. 
Burke  and  Gibbs,  with  the  help  of  two  natives,  looked  after 
the  cattle.  But  Edgar's  reproof  would  seem  to  have  made 
no  impression  on  the  others.  When  they  reached  Wingina 
they  were  still  unarmed. 

At  this  place  the  cattle  went  into  the  river  to  drink.  As 
they  stirred  up  the  water  considerably  and  muddied  it, 
Burke  and  Gibbs  went  farther  up  the  left  bank.  Having 
refreshed  themselves  they  sat  on  the  sand  and  lit  their  pipes. 
This  was  the  moment  for  which  Pigeon  and  his  comrades 
were  waiting.  Creeping  up  stealthily  the  leader  of  the  blacks 
shot  both  the  men  in  the  back.  They  jumped  up  instantly  to 
make  a  dash  for  their  horses.  Gibbs  succeeded  in  mounting 
and  crossing  the  stream,  but  Burke's  horse  became  restive, 
and  he  could  only  get  one  foot  into  the  stirrups.  Eelemarra 
now  ran  out  from  behind  some  rocks  and  shot  him  again, 
using  Richardson's  double-barrelled  breech-loading  shot 
gun.  At  the  same  time  another  native,  Mullenbudden, 
drove  a  spear  into  the  poor  fellow's  side. 

Meanwhile,  Gibbs  was  faring  equally  badly.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  river  the  Lillmaloora  boundary  fence 
blocked  his  way,  and  Pigeon  was  able  to  get  in  another  shot. 
Georgie,  Edgar's  boy,  who  saw  everything,  could  not  say  if 

—  320  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

this  second  shot  hit  or  not  ;  but  Georgie  was  in  the  river  with 
only  his  eyes  and  nose  above  water.  He  said,  however, 
that  Captain  and  Eelemarra  both  went  after  Gibbs,  and  it 
was  concluded  that  the  former  finished  off  the  wounded 
man  by  choking  him.  Edgar's  other  boy,  Nugger,  rode  back 
to  his  master  with  the  news,  and  the  drover  unyoked  his 
bullocks,  giving  a  gun  to  his  driver,  Sambo.  He  then 
galloped  to  Mr.  Lukin's  station,  a  few  miles  distant,  to 
procure  help.  Sambo  and  Nugger  waited  some  time  to  see 
if  Gibbs  had  escaped,  and  on  his  not  showing  up  they,  too, 
proceeded  to  Lukin's. 

Down  by  the  river  Pigeon  was  preparing  for  the  pursuit 
which  he  knew  was  sure  to  follow.  The  bodies  of  the  two 
dead  drovers  were  dragged  into  the  road  above  the  bank, 
and  left  there  in  full  view  of  any  one  approaching.  On  the 
top  of  some  hills  of  the  Barrier  Range  some  gins  were  posted 
to  watch  for  the  police,  a  signal  being  arranged  by  which 
they  were  to  notify  the  other  natives.  When  thus  apprised, 
Pigeon  and  his  followers  meant  to  creep  up  under  the  river 
bank  and  shoot  the  police  as  the  latter  were  examining  the 
bodies.  But  before  taking  up  their  position  the  blacks 
visited  the  drovers'  camp,  sacking  the  dray  and  stealing 
all  the  guns  and  revolvers  left  there,  together  with  a  large 
quantity  of  ammunition.  They  took  the  boy  Georgie 
with  them,  in  the  hope  of  persuading  him  to  join  them, 
but  he  refused.  Pigeon  let  him  go  when  they  decamped, 
saying  that  he  "  did  not  want  to  kill  black  fellow,  only 
whites." 

The  police  officer  at  Derby,  Sub-Inspector  0.  Drewry, 
was  prompt  in  following  up  the  criminals.  A  party  of 
mounted  police,  accompanied  by  Edgar,  and  strengthened 
by  several  black  trackers,  set  out  on  the  llth.  The  trackers 

—  321  —  Y 


painted  themselves  as  if  on  the  war-path  and  carried  native 
weapons  instead  of  guns,  so  that  they  might  come  to  close 
quarters  with  the  fugitives  before  an  alarm  was  raised. 
They  were  instructed  to  get  friendly  with  Pigeon  and  seize 
their  chance  to  smash  the  blacks'  rifles  on  the  rocks.  If  it 
came  to  a  fight  they  were  to  spear  the  leaders  rather  than 
let  them  escape. 

Pigeon's  scheme  to  entrap  the  police  failed,  and  on  their 
side  the  troopers  met  with  ill-success.  But  the  latter  located 
their  quarry,  who  had  fled  into  a  fastness  of  the  Barrier 
Range.  In  accordance  with  a  concerted  plan  the  pursuing 
party  now  split  up  into  three  bodies,  one  under  Sub-Inspector 
Drewry  working  round  to  the  northward,  while  another, 
under  Corporal  Cadden,  took  a  southerly  direction.  The 
third  body,  which  included  several  Queensland  trackers  1  and 
local  natives  who  knew  the  country,  approached  the  hills 
from  the  east  side.  The  movement  was  carried  out  in  the 
hours  of  darkness.  All  went  well  until  the  blacks  were 
seemingly  cornered.  Then  it  was  discovered  that  the  strong- 
hold was  not  the  trap  that  it  had  been  believed  to  be.  This 
particular  hill  was  honeycombed  with  caves,  which  afforded 
many  avenues  of  escape.  After  a  sharp  engagement,  in 
which  several  of  the  blacks  were  known  to  be  wounded,  the 
police  made  an  attempt  to  rush  the  place.  They  reached  the 
top  of  the  rocky  hill  safely,  but  found  that  Pigeon,  Captain 
and  Eelemarra  had  slipped  through  their  fingers.  They 
now  saw  that  their  shots  could  have  done  little  real  damage, 
as  the  entrances  to  the  underground  passages  were  well 

1  The  presence  of  the  Queensland  black  trackers  is  accounted  for  by 
the  objection  to  having  armed  local  natives  in  the  district  without  a 
sufficiency  of  strangers  among  them  to  ensure  their  not  joining  the  fugitives. 
Natives  taken  from  adjacent  stations  were  not  above  suspicion  if 
left  to  their  own  device. 

—  322  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

guarded  by  broad  flat  rocks.  It  was  a  position  that  could 
have  been  held  by  an  astute  enemy.  The  only  captures 
made  by  the  troopers  were  some  gins  from  whom  valuable 
information  was  gleaned,  and  a  number  of  stolen  guns  with 
ammunition,,  tomahawks  and  axes.  In  one  of  the  caves  was 
found  Gibbs'  watch,  still  going. 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  the  mounted  police  kept  up 
the  chase  into  the  Leopold  Ranges,  travelling  nearly  three 
hundred  miles,  and  drove  the  natives  before  them.  At  one 
deserted  camp  they  came  upon  several  articles  that  had 
belonged  to  Trooper  Richardson  and  to  Edgar.  But  for 
the  timely  warning  of  some  gins  the  murderers  would  have 
been  caught  at  one  point ;  the  police  were  able  to  lay  their 
hands  only  on  a  few  of  the  one-time  chain-gang  prisoners 
In  this  vain  pursuit  December  passed,  and  in  the  following 
month,  Sub-Inspector  Drewry  retired  to  Derby,  as  the  rainy 
season  was  making  the  country  too  difficult  for  travelling. 

An  additional  check  to  the  hunt  was  afforded  by  the 
nature  of  the  ground  over  which  the  tracking  had  to  be  done. 
The  Barrier  Range  on  the  south  side,  where  the  party  had 
principally  to  work,  rises  sheer  out  of  the  plain  like  a  wall  of 
rock.  It  is  composed  of  carboniferous  limestone  which 
takes  the  form  of  pinnacles  sharply  pointed  and  smooth- 
sided.  The  action  of  water  in  the  course  of  time  has  created 
thousands  of  caves,  passages  and  crevasses,  among  which  are 
water  holes,  all  known  to  the  natives.  The  limestone  is  of 
the  hardest  kind — a  piece  almost  as  thin  as  the  blade  of 
a  knife  will  carry  a  man  without  crumbling — and  tracking  on 
it  was  next  to  impossible.  That  the  police  were  more  than 
ordinarily  hampered  in  their  work  will  be  understood.  For 
the  time  it  was  deemed  wisest  to  call  a  halt  and  let  the 
country  quieten  down  a  bit.  The  blacks  were  known  to  be 

—  323  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

in  the  ranges  and  a  special  party  was  detailed  to  watch  for 
any  movement  on  their  part. 

At  this  juncture  Inspector  (now  Superintendent)  W.  C. 
Lawrence  was  sent  into  the  field  by  Commissioner  Phillips, 
to  take  command  of  the  operations  and  renew  the  pursuit. 
The  band  must  have  exhausted  its  ammunition,  owing  to 
the  quantity  recovered  by  the  troopers  under  Drewry,  and 
a  continuous  "  drive  "  might  prove  successful  in  the  end. 
Lawrence,  therefore,  set  to  work  to  scour  the  Fitzroy  country 
thoroughly.  A  large  force  of  mounted  men  and  trackers 
penetrated  the  hills  and  patrolled  the  Robinson  and  Fitzroy 
Rivers,  having  for  one  of  their  guides  a  settler  who  had  been 
badly  speared  by  the  blacks  in  a  recent  raid. 

By  March,  when  the  police  had  covered  a  distance  of 
close  on  1,200  miles,  a  great  deal  had  been  effected.  The 
natives,  to  the  relief  of  stockmen  and  other  whites,  were 
driven  far  up  country,  while  Captain  and  a  few  other  lead- 
ing spirits  were  captured.  The  ex-police  tracker  was  tried 
for  the  murder  of  Richardson  and  duly  executed.  Pigeon, 
however,  still  remained  at  large  somewhere  in  the  north-west, 
and  for  a  long  time  no  news  of  his  whereabouts  leaked  out. 
It  was  three  years,  in  fact,  before  retribution  overtook  this 
black  desperado. 

Early  in  1897  the  Fitzroy  police  reported  the  murder  of  a 
man  named  Thomas  Jasper  at  a  station  in  the  Oscar  Range, 
hi  the  West  Kimberley  district.  Pigeon  was  believed  to  be 
at  the  head  of  the  attacking  party.  This  surmise  proved  to 
be  correct.  His  tracks  having  been  followed  up  by  Sub- 
Inspector  Ord  and  a  special  body  of  troopers,  he  was  cornered 
in  his  retreat  among  the  hills  and  shot  down  by  two  of  the 
Lennard  police,  Constables  Buckland  and  Anderson.  Many 
of  his  accomplices  escaped  in  the  network  of  caves  and 

—  324  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

passages,  which  somewhat  resembled  those  found  in  the 
Barrier  Range.  But  with  the  death  of  their  principal  leader 
the  blacks  gave  no  further  trouble,  and  the  Fitzroy  detach- 
ment ere  long  was  able  to  report  that  all  was  quiet  in  that 
corner  of  the  north-west. 

After  Pigeon,  the  most  notorious  black  criminal  of  recent 
years  was  undoubtedly  "  Major,"  who  leapt  into  the  public 
eye  in  1908.  This  native  was  a  servant  in  the  employ  of 
Mr.  J.  Kelly,  of  Texas  Downs  Station,  in  the  Kimberley 
district.  He  originally  came  from  the  Northern  Territory, 
where  he  lived  close  to  the  Queensland  border.  With  two 
other  blacks,  Nipper  and  Dibby  by  name,  Major  attacked  a 
homestead  at  Blackfellows'  Creek  and  murdered  two  men, 
George  Fettell  and  Thomas  Davidson.  The  victims  had 
been  surprised  while  asleep,  as  their  bodies  were  found  lying 
in  their  bunks.  This  outrage  was  followed  by  another 
murder,  that  of  a  man  named  McDonald,  at  Texas  Downs 
Station,  and  the  three  blacks  took  to  the  bush  with  a  posse 
of  police  on  their  trail. 

In  the  hunting  down  of  the  murderers  Troopers  Fanning, 
Schultz,  Yates  and  Baker  took  the  lead.  For  native  assist- 
ants they  had  Charlie,  Dicky,  Quart  Pot,  Dilly,  Negri,  and 
a  sixth  boy  having  the  same  name,  Nipper,  as  one  of  the 
"  wanted  "  men.  The  tracks  of  Major  and  his  party  were 
discovered  and  followed  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  murders, 
the  blacks  being  surrounded  at  Turkey  Creek,  a  point  on  the 
Ord  River.  Then  there  ensued  a  brisk  fight,  no  fewer  than 
a  hundred  and  fifty  shots  being  fired  before  victory  fell  to 
the  police.  For  a  time  it  became  a  duel  between  Fanning 
and  the  black.  When  the  latter  was  dislodged  from  his 
position  on  a  hill  the  constable  gave  chase  and  had  to  face 
the  combined  fire  of  Major  and  Dibby.  In  the  end  native 

—  325  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

trackers  Nipper  and  Dicky  dropped  Major  with  a  couple  of 
bullets  in  his  head,  and  soon  afterwards  Quart  Pot 
accounted  for  Dibby.  The  third  man,  Nipper,  had  been  shot 
by  others  of  the  party. 

For  their  share  in  the  deaths  of  Major  and  his  accomplices 
the  four  police  troopers  received  a  reward  of  £20  each.  A 
further  sum  of  £20  was  expended  in  purchasing  suitable 
presents  for  the  six  trackers  engaged.  At  the  same  time  the 
Government  acknowledged  its  appreciation  of  the  services 
rendered  by  Messrs.  McCulloch,  Terone,  and  McLaughlin, 
who  had  been  sworn  in  as  special  constables.  These  three 
stockmen  were  intimately  acquainted  with  the  country 
over  which  the  search  was  pursued,  ana  wor«  largely 
instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  success  of  the  police 
hunt. 

Following  upon  these  presentations  the  Police  Gazette 
of  Western  Australia,  under  date  April  8th,  1909,  issued  this 
notice — 

FAVOURABLE  RECORDS. 

"  With  the  above  distribution  of  Rewards  [the  list  com- 
prised grants  made  between  January  1st,  1907,  and  December 
31st,  1908)  the  system  hitherto  in  vogue  in  connection  with 
the  granting  of  rewards  annually  on  account  of  Favourable 
Records  will  be  discontinued.  The  Police  Reward  Fund  will 
now  be  closed,  the  amount  provided  on  the  Estimates  in 
past  years  for  the  purpose  having  been  removed.  In  future, 
only  cases  in  which  special  skill,  bravery  or  endurance  are 
exhibited  by  members  of  the  force  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duty  will  be  recommended  for  reward.  Such  cases,  on 
being  reported  by  District  Officers,  will  be  investigated  and 
submitted  for  the  consideration  and  approval  of  the  Hon. 

—  326  — 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

the  Minister,  when  a  suitable  reward  will  be  granted  from 

the  Government  Funds. 

"  (Signed)  FEED  HARE, 

"  Commissioner  of  Police." 

In  their  work  in  the  bush  the  West  Australian  mounted 
police  are  armed  with  the  Winchester  carbine.  Previously 
they  used  the  Snider,  which  itself  had  superseded  a  muzzle- 
loading  carbine  fired  with  caps.  For  target  practice  the 
Martini-Enfield  rifle  has  been  adopted.  Similarly  the  old 
type  Colt's  revolver  of  early  days  gave  place  to  the  Smith  & 
Wesson  weapon,  and  more  recently  to  the  Webley.  In 
retaining  the  lance  as  well  as  the  sword  for  parade  purposes 
the  force  is  alone  among  the  police  services  of  the  Common- 
wealth. With  their  coloured  pennons  fluttering  in  the  wind 
as  they  manoeuvre,  the  mounted  men  make  a  most  effective 
spectacle. 

The  uniform  worn  differs  little  from  that  of  other  States. 
A  trooper  is  dressed  in  blue  cloth  or  serge  tunic,  and  trousers 
of  the  same  material  ;  white  Bedford  cord  riding  breeches 
for  summer  wear,  and  brown  ones  for  winter  ;  and  the  usual 
outfit  of  helmet,  cloak,  and  Wellington  boots.  One  varia- 
tion from  this  regular  dress  is  that  in  the  northern  districts 
khaki  may  be  worn  instead  of  serge.  At  the  same  time, 
it  must  be  remembered  that  while  out  on  a  long  trip,  such 
as  is  entailed  by  a  hunt  for  criminals  of  the  Pigeon  or  Major 
type,  the  trooper  policeman  garbs  himself  in  rough  bush 
clothes,  and  is  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  any  stock- 
man or  boundary  rider.  The  items  given  above  refer  to  the 
regulation  dress  which  the  mounted  constable  wears  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  his  duty. 

In  former  years  the  police  cap  was  round  with  a  long 
peak  in  front,  but  the  helmet  has  now  been  in  use  some  time. 

—  327  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


It  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  this  form  of  headgear  does 
not  commend  itself  to  the  trooper  in  the  country  districts, 
the  Commissioner  is  contemplating  the  issue  of  a  soft  hat 
of  the  Stetson  "  cowboy  "  pattern.  This,  no  doubt,  will  be 
welcomed  for  its  advantages  of  lightness  and  shade  for  the 
eyes,  while  its  smart  appearance  should  go  far  to  make  it 
popular.  Any  one  who  has  seen  the  Mounted  Police  of 
Canada  and  South  Africa  wearing  the  "  cowboy  "  hat  must 
have  wondered  why  this  useful  article  of  headgear  has  not 
been  already  adopted  by  the  police  authorities  of  Australia 
for  the  up-country  trooper. 

A  word  may  be  said  as  to  enrolment.  According  to  the 
conditions  of  the  appointment  of  mounted  constables, 
applicants  for  admission  to  the  force  must  be  over  twenty- 
one  and  under  thirty  years  of  age,  able  to  read  and  write, 
and  mentally,  physically  and  constitutionally  fit  for  service. 
They  must  not  be  less  than  5  feet  10  inches  in  height,  nor 
more  than  11  stone  7  Ib.  in  weight,  and  must  be  able  to  ride 
well.  If  under  6  feet,  they  must  be  at  least  38  inches  in 
chest  measurement ;  if  6  feet  or  over  the  standard  is  39  inches. 

With  regard  to  the  pay-sheet,  Western  Australia  prides 
herself  on  treating  her  police  servants  generously.  The 
candidate  for  either  the  foot  or  the  mounted  branch  will 
find  nothing  to  quarrel  with  in  the  following  scale — 


Bank. 

Pay. 

Lodging  Allowance 
in  lieu  of  Quarters. 

Uniform 
Allowance. 

Superintendent 

£425  per  annum. 

£50  per  ann. 

£15  per  ann. 

Inspector 

£325  to  £375 

£40 

£15 

Sub-Inspectors 

£250  to  £300 

£36 

£12 

Detective  Sergeants 

14/-  per  day 

£25 

£7 

Sergeants 

11/6  to  13/6 

£25 

Free  uniform 

Detectives     . 

12/-  to  13/- 

£25 

£7  per  annum 

Corporals 

10/- 

£20 

Free  uniform 

Constables     . 

6/6  to  9/- 

£20 

»»          »» 

—  328  — 


"  PIGEOX'S  "    STRONGHOLD. 
A  cave  in  the  Barrier  Range,  north-west  Australia. 


WESTERN  AUSTRALIA 

The  trooper  policeman  of  the  western  State,  it  will 
be  understood,  is  a  picked  man.  His  examination  on  en- 
trance into  the  force  is  a  severe  one,  for  only  the  best  are 
wanted,  and  his  training  at  the  Perth  headquarters,  once  he 
has  passed  the  preliminary  stages,  is  such  as  to  turn  him 
out  as  well-equipped  in  every  respect  as  the  mounted  con- 
stable of  any  other  State.  What  has  been  noted  already  in 
regard  to  his  multifarious  duties  and  to  his  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  work  in  certain  districts,  is  sufficient  to  convince 
one  of  the  important  part  he  plays  in  the  development  of 
the  country.  It  is  especially  in  South  and  Western  Aus- 
tralia, with  their  vast  areas  of  unsettled  or  only  sparsely 
settled  land,  that  the  police  trooper  must  be  ranked  with 
the  pioneer  whom  he  accompanies  into  the  wilderness.  The 
day  is  far  distant  when  he  will  not  be  seen  riding  over  the 
plains  on  his  solitary  patrol,  an  emblem  of  that  authority 
which  has  made  itself  respected  and  feared  by  the  white 
transgressor  of  the  law,  and  which  is  schooling  the  unruly 
aboriginal  into  obedience. 


—  329  — 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

GOLDFIELDS   AND   PEARLING   STATIONS 

The  Southern  Cross  discovery — "  Bayley's  Reward  " — The  rush  to  Cool- 
gardie — On  the  road — Inspector  McKenna — Scarcity  of  water — "  To 
Three  Camel  Drinks,  £12  " — A  record  price — Kalgoorlie — Other 
goldfields — A  bogus  "rush" — The  alluvial  riots — An  Afghan  murder 
— "  Bailed  up  "  in  daylight — Coolgardie's  gold  escort  robbed — On  the 
Kimberley  goldfields — A  brutal  murder — Sub-Inspector  Troy — 
The  pearling  industry — Broome — "  Cock-eyed  bobs  " — Illicit  pearl- 
buying — The  Ethel  case — A  Malay  pirate — At  Yampi  Sound — 
Mounted  Constable  Fletcher — A  notable  achievement. 

IN  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Western  Australia  there  was 
the  same  element  of  romance  that  had  attended  the 
birth  of  the  eastern  Eldorados.  A  chance  thrust  of  a  spade 
suddenly  revealed  the  hidden  treasure  of  riches  over  which 
men  had  been  walking  unsuspecting  for  years,  and  sent 
thousands  into  the  scrub  wilderness  to  seek  their  fortune 
with  pick  and  shovel. 

In  1884  the  Kimberley  Goldfield  was  opened,  but  this 
was  soon  eclipsed  in  interest  by  the  far  richer  fields  in  the 
south.  The  scene  of  the  first  "  find  "  here  was  some  distance 
below  Southern  Cross.  At  a  small  station  one  of  the  hands 
was  engaged  in  digging  a  post  hole  when  he  unearthed  a 
good-sized  nugget.  The  news  that  gold  had  been  found 
spread  quickly,  and  a  properly  organised  search  party  ere 
long  laid  bare  two  payable  reefs.  Shortly  afterwards  mining 
was  commenced  at  Southern  Cross  with  successful  results. 
This  was  in  1887.  For  five  years  this  field  was  worked  by 

—  330  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

companies,  and  then,  owing  to  the  poorness  of  the  ore  and  the 
high  cost  of  production,  the  mines  were  shut  down.  Only 
a  handful  of  two  hundred  men  remained  at  the  diggings, 
struggling  to  scrape  a  living  in  the  best  way  they  could. 

At  this  juncture  came  the  turning-point  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  State.  In  September,  1892,  a  prospector  named 
Arthur  Bayley  rode  into  the  little  township  with  a  startling 
story  to  tell.  He  had  been  in  the  back  country  "  specking 
for  slugs,"  that  is,  looking  for  surface  gold,  and  at  a  place 
called  by  the  natives  Coolgardie  he  and  a  mate  had  collected 
several  thousands  of  pounds'  worth  in  the  course  of  two  days. 
He  had  then  found  a  large  quartz  reef,  which  gave  rich  indi- 
cations of  the  precious  metal.  At  Southern  Cross  the  lucky 
prospector  applied  to  Warden  Finnerty  for  the  claim  that 
was  his  by  right  as  the  original  discoverer,  and  so  became 
possessed  of  the  famous  mine  known  as  "  Bayley 's  Reward." 

The  consequent  rush  to  Coolgardie  now  left  Southern 
Cross  deserted.1  Every  man  who  owned,  or  who  could  beg 
or  borrow,  a  mining  outfit,  hastened  to  the  new  field,  while 
as  knowledge  of  it  spread  the  eastern  States  in  time  contri- 
buted their  quott,.  Over  the  red  sandy  plains  a  canvas 
town  sprang  up  with  remarkable  rapidity.  As  the  railway 
then  terminated  at  Northam,  nearly  three  hundred  miles 
to  the  westward,  the  prices  of  provisions  and  conveyances 
rose  very  high.  Horses,  which  before  the  boom  might  have 
been  bought  for  a  few  pounds,  were  now  saleable  at  £50  or 
more  each.  It  is  not  surprising  that  so  many  of  the  gold- 
seekers  tramped  the  long  dreary  distance  from  "  the  Cross  " 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  as  Southern  Cross  led  the  way  in  the 
opening  up  of  these  extensive  goldfields,  so  was  it  the  scene  of  the  last 
boom.  Only  last  year  (1910)  the  discovery  of  the  "Finch"  group  of 
mines  in  its  immediate  neighbourhood  created  a  sensation  that  vividly 
recalled  the  days  of  the  nineties. 

—  331   — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

with  their  swags  on  their  backs.  The  question  to  be  con- 
sidered was  whether  the  "  soaks  "  and  "  gnamma  holes  " 
would  yield  them  any  water  on  the  route.  Sometimes  they 
did,  and  sometimes  not,  as  we  learn  from  Mr.  John  Marshall, 
a  Coolgardie  pioneer,  who  gives  us  a  graphic  picture  of  the 
"rush  "— 

"Along  with  a  few  others,"  he  writes,  "we  agreed  to  start 
in  the  early  morning.  The  waggon  with  its  six  horses  was 
got  in  readiness.  Each  of  the  party  was  provided  with  a 
water-bag,  tent,  provisions  to  last  some  time,  and  last  and 
most  important,  our  bed  and  bedding.  The  water  which 
we  took  from  Southern  Cross  was  hoarded  with  miserly 
care,  as  it  was  considered  uncertain  whether  on  our  long 
journey  of  112  miles,  every  step  of  the  way  on  foot, 
we  would  get  any  water  at  the  '  soaks  '  or  not.  The  trip 
took  us  seven  days.  During  the  whole  of  this  journey  we 
never  had  the  luck  to  get  our  face  or  feet  washed,  this  being 
a  luxury  reserved  for  us  when  we  would  get  to  the  end  of 
our  journey. 

"  A  big  tank  of  water,  which  was  kept  for  the  horses, 
was  also  guarded  with  jealous  care.  We  are  afraid  that 
had  opportunity  offered  we  should  have  thrown  prudential 
considerations  aside  and  *  nicked  '  sufficient  water  to  wash 
our  begrimed  faces  and  cool  our  weary  feet.  But  alas  ! 
opportunity  never  offered,  and  we  had  to  trudge  through 
the  dust  as  best  we  could  under  a  broiling  sun,  without  a  hope 
of  getting  any  water  to  cool  our  parched  faces  until  we  could 
reach  Coolgardie,  and  some  of  us  who  were  *  soft '  and  not 
in  training  had  our  feet  blistered  and  bleeding,  and  our 
hearts  were  sore  before  we  got  to  our  destination  after  our 
long  tramp  from  Southern  Cross — the  last  stage  of  our 
journey — and  without  a  spell. 

—  332  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING   STATIONS 

"  At  several  of  the  '  soaks  '  where  we  expected  to  get 
water  none  was  available,  and  the  lack  thereof  put  us  to 
some  inconvenience.  At  an  accommodation  house  on  the 
road,  where  we  stopped  for  dinner,  the  landlady  apologised 
for  not  being  able  to  find  us  water  in  which  to  wash  our  faces, 
and  informed  us  it  was  usual  for  travellers  to  '  dry  blow  ' 
each  other — that  is,  knock  the  dust  off  each  other  with  a 
handkerchief,  and  wipe  their  faces  with  a  hat.  There  was 
a  capital  meal  laid  on  the  table,  which  was  nicely  served  up, 
but  none  of  us  could  obtain  a  glass  of  water,  and  we  were 
limited  to  a  single  cup  of  tea.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  all  the  water  being  used  had  to  be  carted  nearly 
fifty  miles.  We  were  not  sorry  when  we  learned  that  we 
were  within  easy  distance  of  Coolgardie." 

In  the  mining  town  all  was  excitement  and  confusion. 
Each  day  had  its  rumour  of  big  "  finds,"  of  new  fields  to  be 
opened  up,  and  many  bogus  rushes  were  reported.  One 
striking  feature  of  the  new  diggings  was  the  absence  of  the 
"  crook  "  element,  the  human  sharks  and  wolves  common  to 
the  muiing  camp  the  world  over.  They  were  not  there  to  any 
extent,  at  least.  Nearly  all  the  miners  were  genuine,  hard- 
working, law-abiding  men,  which  accounts  for  the  orderliness 
that  prevailed.  The  mounted  police,  who  were  early  on 
the  scene  under  Inspector  McKenna,  had  an  easier  task 
before  them  than  that  of  the  New  South  Wales  goldfields 
police  in  the  "  roaring  fifties." 

The  principal  difficulty,  of  course,  was  the  water  ques- 
tion. A  big  Government  bore  had  been  made,  and  this 
yielded  salt  water,  which  had  to  be  condensed.  It  was 
then  sold  at  a  shilling  a  gallon.  But  this  price  was  liable  to 
fluctuation.  It  rose  or  fell  according  to  the  supply. 

John  Dunn,  a  notable  figure  in  old  Coolgardie,  once  sent 
—  333  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

three  camels  across  to  a  store  to  have  the  rough  edge  taken 
off  their  thirst.  The  animals  started  in  on  their  drink,  which 
was  more  of  the  nature  of  a  muddy  syrup  than  water,  and 
the  storekeeper  stood  by  to  check  them.  At  last  he  cried, 
"  Hold  on  !  that's  all  I  can  spare."  Then  he  handed  the 
Afghan  driver  a  bill,  as  follows  — 

"John  Dunn,  Esq., 

"  Dr.  to  the  Pioneer  Store. 

"To  three  Camel  Drinks,  80  gallons  @  3s.  per  gall.,  £12." 
Dunn  paid  it,  but  he  remarked   that  it  was  a  record 
"  shout  "  even  for  him. 

At  "  Hannans,"  where  the  next  big  rush  took  place  a  year 
after  that  of  Coolgardie,  water  rose  in  price  to  5s.  a  gallon. 
It  had  to  be  brought  in  on  camel-back  or  in  carts  from  a 
lake  nearly  thirty  miles  away,  having  first  to  be  condensed 
there  on  account  of  its  saltness.  The  small  quantities  that 
were  thus  obtainable  at  certain  times  made  water  as  precious 
as  the  gold  for  which  men  risked  their  lives  daily.  Perhaps 
the  record  price  ever  paid  for  a  drink  is  to  be  credited  to  one 
Jerry  McAuliffe.  This  gold-seeker  set  out  from  Kanowna 
in  1894  with  a  black  boy,  intending  to  strike  the  new  Kurn- 
alpi  field.  His  water  gave  out  too  soon,  and  there  was  no 
"  soak  "  from  which  to  replenish  the  empty  bags.  The 
two  men  toiled  on  for  two  days  and  nights  without  water, 
while  their  four  horses  were  in  even  worse  plight,  not  having 
tasted  any  for  three  days.  But  just  hi  the  nick  of  time  they 
reached  a  condenser  near  jKurnalpi  and  filled  their  bags. 
This  drink  cost  McAuliffe  £15  lls.,  and  it  had  to  go  round 
among  both  men  and  horses. 

Hannans  l  is  now  Kalgoorlie,  a  flourishing  municipality 

1  So  named  after  Pafc  Hannan,  a  prospector,  who  with  a  party  was 
making  for  the    newly-reported   Mount   Yuille   alluvial   find,  when   he 

—  334  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

and  the  headquarters  of  the  East  Coolgardie  goldfields. 
Including  the  latter  district,  its  population  is  33,000.  At 
the  end  of  1893  there  was  nothing  but  bush  where  the  town 
now  stands.  To-day  there  are  miles  of  streets,  with  well- 
built  imposing  buildings,  electric  trams,  and  "  all  the  con- 
veniences of  modern  civilisation,"  as  the  estate  agents 
say.  Through  the  enterprise  of  Sir  John  Forrest,  who  was 
Premier  of  the  State,  and  the  genius  of  the  late  Mr.  C.  Y. 
O'Connor,  C.M.G.,  the  engineer,  water  has  been  carried 
up  to  the  goldfields  by  means  of  a  pipe  from  Mundaring 
Weir,  325  miles  away.  This  gigantic  undertaking  was 
completed  in  1903.  The  assurance  of  good  water  put  the 
seal  on  the  new  goldfield's  success.  Kalgoorlie  can  boast 
of  mines  that  are  among  the  richest  the  world  has  known. 
In  sixteen  years  from  its  discovery  this  field  alone  yielded 
upwards  of  350  tons  of  gold,  worth  £50,000,000. 

Owing  to  the  incentive  given  to  prospecting  by  the 
Southern  Cross  discoveries,  gold-seekers  ranged  far  and 
wide  over  the  State.  In  due  course  the  Pilbarra,  West 
Pilbarra,  Ashburton,  Gascoyne,  Murchison  and  Peak  Hill 
fields  were  opened  and  developed,  and  townships  soon 
sprang  up  around  them.  Though  none  of  these  centres 
was  of  the  magnitude  of  Coolgardie  or  Kalgoorlie,  the  out- 
put nevertheless  has  been  very  great.  The  Murchison 
and  Peak  Hill  diggings  together  have  yielded  something 
like  ten  million  pounds'  worth  of  gold. 

That  the  mounted  police  have  had  a  fairly  easy  task  in 
controlling  the  goldfields  is  true,  but  once  or  twice  trouble 
of  a  serious  kind  has  arisen.  The  bogus  "  rush,"  which 

stumbled  across  gold  at  Kalgoorlie.  His  original  claim,  which  is  still  being 
worked  in  a  small  way,  was  soon  eclipsed  by  the  Golden  Horseshoe, 
Ivanhoe,  Great  Boulder  and  other  mines. 

—  335  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

sent  prospectors  far  into  the  scrub  land  at  the  risk  of  life, 
was  apt  to  rouse  the  miners  to  a  high  pitch  of  indignation. 
Sometimes  such  a  stampede  was  engineered  by  store- 
keepers, who  profited  thereby  in  a  quick  sale  of  their  goods. 
Occasionally  it  was  the  outcome  of  a  drunken  frolic.  A 
wild  statement  thus  made  would  be  taken  seriously,  and 
scores  of  men  would  dash  off  recklessly  to  test  its  truth. 
In  the  nineties  Coolgardie  witnessed  several  of  these  wild- 
goose  chases,  one  of  which  nearly  proved  fatal  for  its  author. 

In  1895  a  miner  named  John  McCann  gave  a  circum- 
stantial account  of  a  rich  find  he  had  made  near  Widge- 
mooltha,  to  the  south  of  Coolgardie.  On  the  strength  of 
his  assertions  many  parties  set  out  for  this  district,  but 
no  traces  of  gold  were  to  be  seen.  There  now  came  a  call 
for  McCann.  If  he  had  found  gold  there,  as  he  declared, 
it  was  up  to  him  to  substantiate  his  story.  Men  were  in 
danger  of  starving  on  the  new  field ;  some  had  suffered 
terribly  in  the  return  journey  through  the  bush.  Alarming 
rumours  of  this  kind  added  fuel  to  the  flames.  McCann 
faced  the  music,  although  his  goldfield  was  a  myth.  He 
blamed  the  local  newspapers  for  magnifying  what  he  had 
stated  to  them,  but  stoutly  declared  his  willingness  to 
lead  a  party  to  the  ground.  His  offer  was  accepted.  Four 
prominent  miners  accompanied  him  on  the  search — to 
return  unsuccessful  a  few  days  later.  Then  the  storm  burst. 

The  thousands  who  had  been  fooled  by  what  was  now 
palpably  a  hoax  demanded  vengeance  on  its  perpetrator. 
The  house  where  McCann  was  lodged  was  besieged  by  the 
mob,  and  for  greater  security  he  was  removed  to  the  police 
station.  There  was  no  doubt  as  to  his  danger.  The  temper 
of  the  miners  was  such  that  he  would  have  been  lynched 
had  they  captured  him.  A  strong  body  of  troopers  then 

—  336  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

formed  up  to  check  any  further  disturbance,  and  frustrated 
an  attempt  to  wreck  the  office  of  one  of  the  offending  news- 
papers. Fresh  trouble,  however,  broke  out  when  the  dis- 
appointed goldseekers  returned  from  the  Widgemooltha 
field,  where  they  had  been  camped  awaiting  developments. 
McCann's  effigy  was  publicly  burnt,  while  the  rioters  threat- 
ened to  wreck  some  of  the  buildings.  It  was  some  consider- 
able time  before  Inspector  McKenna  and  his  police  could 
allay  the  excitement,  but  the  mob  was  at  last  dispersed 
without  any  great  damage  being  done.  McCann,  mean- 
while, was  smuggled  out  of  the  town,  a  badly  scared  and 
thoroughly  repentant  man. 

A  riot  on  a  larger  scale  was  occasioned  in  1898  by  a 
decision  of  the  Warden  at  Kalgoorlie.  According  to  the 
Goldfields  Act  of  1895,  section  36,  alluvial  miners  had  the 
right  to  search  for  alluvial  gold  on  leases,  with  certain 
restrictions.  In  the  dispute  in  question  the  point  was 
whether  there  was  a  reef  on  the  lease  of  the  Ivanhoe  Venture 
Syndicate  or  not.  The  leaseholders  on  their  side  felt 
aggrieved  that  the  Act  confirmed  the  existence  of  dual 
titles,  those  of  the  leaseholders  and  those  of  the  claimholders. 
The  alluvial  miners  argued  that  they  had  a  right  to  the 
alluvial  gold,  no  matter  at  what  depth  it  might  be  found. 
While  this  confusion  of  title  was  leading  to  friction  between 
the  two  parties  the  Hon.  Edward  Wittenoom,  the  Minister 
for  Mines,  got  the  Government  to  pass  a  regulation  limiting 
the  depth  to  which  alluvial  could  be  worked  to  ten  feet. 
This  ordinance  created  widespread  discontent,  for  other 
goldfields  besides  Kalgoorlie  were  affected.  "  Ten-foot 
Ned  "  became  a  most  unpopular  character.  The  case  of 
the  miners  v.  the  syndicate  then  went  before  the  Warden, 
the  result  being  that  the  former  lost  the  day. 

—  337  —  z 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Smarting  under  a  sense  of  their  wrongs,  a  large  number 
of  the  alluvial  diggers  disregarded  this  decision  and  con- 
tinued to  work  their  claims.  Open  conflict  with  the  lease- 
holders at  once  ensued.  The  mounted  police  were  called 
out  frequently  in  the  course  of  two  months,  the  miners 
becoming  more  and  more  determined  and  threatening  in 
their  attitude.  At  one  time  there  were  as  many  as  forty 
troopers  in  the  district,  the  rioting  having  assumed  a  serious 
aspect.  Many  of  those  who  resorted  to  violence  were  made 
prisoners  and  conveyed  to  Fremantle.  Sir  John  Forrest, 
the  Premier,  now  visited  the  goldfields  in  person,  but  his 
efforts  to  bring  about  conciliation  met  with  a  cold  reception. 
There  was  no  course  left  but  to  take  the  dispute  into  a 
court  of  law.  This  was  eventually  done,  and  the  judges 
pronounced  for  the  miners.  As  a  consequence  the  Govern- 
ment proceeded  to  abolish  the  dual  title,  and  to  pass  a  new 
Mining  Act  (62  Victoria,  No.  16)  which  defined  the  relations 
between  leaseholders  and  claimholders  in  a  more  satisfactory 
manner. 

Murders  and  other  crimes  of  violence  on  the  Coolgardie 
fields  were  extremely  rare.  The  first  case  that  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  police  was  the  shooting  of  an  Afghan 
camel  proprietor  by  a  fellow-countryman.  The  two  men 
had  quarrelled  over  some  matter,  and  fearing  that  his 
own  life  was  in  danger  one  of  them  took  the  aggressive. 
The  crime  was  committed  with  a  revolver  in  a  mosque, 
the  victim  being  at  his  prayers.  The  murderer  gave  him- 
self up  to  justice  readily  and  was  hanged  a  few  months  later 
at  Fremantle. 

Not  a  few  Afghans,  it  may  be  said,  were  on  the  gold- 
fields  at  this  period.  They  acted  as  water-carriers  chiefly, 
their  camels  being  able  to  bring  in  much  heavier  loads 

—  338  — 


than  a  team  of  horses.  The  mounted  police  had  an  Afghan 
driver  attached  to  the  force  who  instructed  them  how  to 
handle  the  beasts  until  they  were  able  to  manage  for  them- 
selves. Up  to  about  eight  years  ago  camels  were  largely 
used  hi  police  work,  but  their  employment  nowadays 
would  only  be  necessitated  by  an  expedition  which  led  far 
into  the  interior.  The  extension  of  the  railway  and  the 
linking  up  of  districts  by  [telegraph  and  telephone  has 
simplified  communication  considerably. 

The  absence  of  a  criminal  fraternity  such  as  had  char- 
acterised the  older  goldfields  of  New  South  Wales  and 
Victoria  has  been  commented  upon.  The  diggers  them- 
selves aided  the  authorities  to  keep  the  fields  purged  from 
this  element.  Nevertheless  some  daring  robberies  were 
attempted,  a  few  of  which  proved  successful.  There  was, 
for  instance,  the  "  bailing  up  "  of  two  employes  of  a  gold- 
mining  company  at  Kalgoorlie,  in  1899.  The  two  men 
were  driving  in  a  buggy  along  the  Boulder  Road,  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  outside  the  town,  with  the  fortnightly  wages 
of  the  miners  and  other  sums  of  money  which  they  had 
drawn  from  the  bank.  The  total  value  was  nearly  £5,000. 
For  convenience  this  money  was  placed  in  three  separate 
bags,  one  containing  gold  and  notes,  one  silver,  and  the 
third  copper.  No  police  guard  had  been  provided,  as  the 
possibility  of  attack  on  the  open  highway  in  broad  daylight 
never  entered  any  one's  head. 

But  attack  there  was.  At  a  point  in  the  road  near 
which  were  no  diggers'  shanties  a  masked  man  suddenly 
stopped  the  vehicle  with  a  command  to  "  Bail  up  !  "  To 
prevent  any  escape  he  promptly  shot  the  horse  dead,  then 
levelling  a  Winchester  rifle  at  the  clerks'  heads  he  bade 
them  "  Throw  out  the  bag."  It  was  evident  that  he  expected 

—  339  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

the  money  to  be  all  in  one  receptacle,  for  as  one  of  the 
men  stooped  and  lifted  out  a  bag  he  contented  himself 
with  this,  not  stopping  to  examine  it.  He  then  edged 
away  from  the  buggy,  keeping  the  others  well  under  cover, 
until  he  reached  his  horse,  when  he  mounted  and  rode  off. 

A  couple  of  troopers  who  answered  the  alarm  proceeded 
to  the  spot,  but  with  unpardonable  negligence  did  not 
immediately  take  up  the  pursuit.  The  robber  thus  obtained 
a  good  start  and  was  never  captured.  In  a  disused  shaft, 
on  search  being  made,  was  found  his  black  coat,  some  cart- 
ridges, and  a  blue  handkerchief  which  he  had  converted 
into  a  mask.  Of  the  money  bag  there  was  no  trace,  but 
there  was  some  consolation  in  knowing  that  the  loss  was 
a  trifling  one.  In  his  trepidation  the  clerk  who  had  obeyed 
the  highwayman's  summons  had  thrown  him  the  bag  con- 
taining the  silver,  which  amounted  to  little  over  a  hundred 
pounds.  The  gold  and  notes  were  intact. 

Somewhat  similar  in  method  was  the  outrage  at  Cool- 
gardie,  when  an  unarmed  gold  escort  was  stuck  up  by  three 
masked  men.  On  this  occasion  £800  was  the  value  of  the 
haul.  The  police  troopers  got  on  the  trail  of  the  robbers 
after  the  latter's  victims  had  released  themselves  from 
their  bonds  and  laid  information,  but  though  black  trackers 
were  employed  the  men  were  never  caught.  There  are 
those  who  believe  that  these  embryo  bushrangers  doubled 
back  to  the  town,  and  further,  that  they  belonged  to  the 
mining  camp.  However,  the  whole  affair  has  remained  a 
mystery  to  this  day. 

A  goldfields  sensation  of  an  earlier  date  was  the  murder 
of  Anthony  Johnson,  a  Norwegian  prospector.  This 
occurred  hi  the  Kimberley  district  in  October  1886.  The 
unfortunate  victim  had  chummed  up  with  a  German, 

—  340  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

Frank  Hornig  by  name,  who  determined  to  get  rid  of  him  for 
the  sake  of  the  other's  horses  and  few  belongings.  Hornig 
at  first  lured  Johnson  down  to  the  Mary  River,  alleging 
that  gold  was  to  be  found  there,  but  the  presence  of  some 
other  prospectors  deterred  him  from  this  plan.  He  next 
selected  a  remote  spot  known  as  Hall's  Gully,  and  here 
they  pitched  their  camp  under  a  big  tree.  The  Norwegian 
was  set  to  digging  and  presently  had  a  deep  hole  in  the 
ground  to  show  his  mate.  It  proved  to  be  his  grave.  As 
he  leaned  over  it,  resting  upon  his  spade,  Hornig  beat  out 
his  brains  with  a  rifle  stock.  The  German  then  buried 
the  body  in  the  hole  and,  to  cover  all  traces  of  his  dread- 
ful crime,  placed  a  mat  of  grass  over  the  spot.  Then  he 
possessed  himself  of  the  dead  man's  horses  and  outfit,  and 
took  to  the  road. 

One  or  other  of  the  horses  had  bells  on  its  bridle,  and 
the  jingling  of  these  in  the  night  time  told  a  neighbouring 
fossicker,  Jock  McAlister,  that  a  party  in  the  Gully  was 
breaking  camp.  Curious  to  see  who  had  been  there,  he 
went  round  in  the  morning  to  investigate.  While  so  doing 
he  found  his  foot  sink  into  some  soft  ground,  which  made 
the  boot  muddy.  He  washed  off  the  dirt  in  the  little  creek 
near  at  hand  and  then  returned  to  further  examine  the 
hole.  In  all  probability,  he  thought,  it  was  a  cache  of 
provisions  or  miners'  tools.  Taking  a  thick  stick  he  probed 
into  the  cavity  and,  to  his  amazement,  brought  to  view 
first  a  sack,  then  an  opossum  rug,  and  lastly  a  man's  foot ! 

McAlister  hastily  filled  up  the  hole  again  and  went  off 
to  inform  the  police.  Sub-Inspector  Troy,  the  officer  in 
charge  at  the  diggings,  accompanied  him  to  the  Gully,  and 
there  poor  Johnson's  body  was  uncovered.  The  camp  of 
the  two  men  on  inspection  showed  that  several  articles 

—  34i  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

had  been  burnt,  while  the  Norwegian's  boots  were  discovered 
in  a  bush  a  little  distance  off.  A  description  of  Hornig, 
whom  many  knew  to  have  been  Johnson's  mate,  gave  the 
police  the  clue  they  needed.  With  the  assistance  of  a 
black  tracker  they  speedily  got  upon  his  trail,  the  Sub- 
Inspector  taking  with  him  Trooper  Mallard. 

A  few  days  later  Hornig  was  overtaken  on  the  road 
westward,  whither  he  was  riding  with  another  prospector 
named  Doyle.  This  man  had  quarrelled  with  his  mate  and 
had  readily  accepted  the  German's  offer  of  his  company. 
When  the  two  troopers  hailed  them  with  a  summons  to 
"  Stand  !  "  Doyle  for  the  moment  thought  they  were  held 
up  by  bushrangers.  With  his  big  black  beard  and  rough 
clothes  the  Sub-Inspector  quite  looked  the  part.  The 
digger  was  more  scared,  however,  when  he  learned  the 
true  nature  of  his  companion. 

Hornig  submitted  quietly  to  his  capture,  but  stoutly 
protested  his  innocence.  "  That's  all  right,"  said  Troy, 
"  we'll  go  into  that  when  we  get  to  Derby."  The  town 
was  over  200  miles  away,  which  meant  a  long  and 
tedious  journey.  At  the  first  Hornig  believed  that  the 
police  had  arrested  him  simply  on  suspicion.  Neither  of 
the  troopers  had  dropped  a  hint  as  to  the  discovery  of  the 
body.  Johnson  had  gone  away  alone,  he  declared  ;  they 
had  had  a  difference  of  opinion  and  parted  company,  that 
was  all.  The  Sub-Inspector  looked  at  the  packhorse 
which  he  and  Mallard  had  brought  along  and  smiled  grimly. 

Then  the  bolt  fell.  On  the  second  day  after  the  capture 
the  packhorse  suffered  from  some  prickly  blossom  which 
the  wind  blew  on  to  it  from  a  wayside  shrub.  Irritated 
beyond  endurance,  it  bucked  and  reared,  and  the  straps 
of  its  pack  becoming  loosened,  one  of  the  articles  therein 

—  342  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

slipped  to  the  ground.  It  was  the  opossum  rug.  As  his 
eye  lighted  on  it  Hornig's  face  whitened.  He  knew  now 
that  the  secret  was  out,  and  from  that  moment  his  attitude 
of  defiance  dropped  like  a  mask.  For  precaution  the 
prisoner  was  chained  to  a  tree  at  night,  the  policemen  taking 
it  in  turns  to  stand  watch.  But  with  all  their  vigilance 
the  German  found  an  opportunity  to  open  a  vein  on  his 
arm,  with  the  intention  of  committing  suicide.  Trooper 
Mallard  discovered  the  attempt  just  in  time.  Hornig, 
who  had  swooned  from  loss  of  blood,  was  revived  with 
brandy,  and  without  further  mishap  was  brought  into 
Derby.  Thence  he  was  transferred  to  Perth,  to  be  tried 
and  condemned  to  death.  He  was  hung  at  Perth  gaol  on 
April  4,  1887,  six  months  after  committing  his  dastardly 
crime. 

In  the  north-west,  besides  gold-mining,  there  is  another 
important  industry  that  touches  the  police  very  nearly. 
Along  the  coast  from  Geraldton  to  Wyndham  are  the  largest 
and  richest  pearling  grounds  in  the  world,  and  at  various 
towns — at  Broome  particularly — there  are  numbers  of 
alien  immigrants  of  Asiatic  nationality  engaged  in  the 
business.  Broome 's  settled  population  may  be  put  at  400 
whites  and  1,500  Asiatics  and  natives.  The  diving  for 
pearls  and  pearl  shell  is  done  mostly  by  Japanese  and  Malays, 
but  Chinese,  Javanese,  Manilamen,  and  Koepangs  from  the 
island  of  Timor,  among  others,  represent  the  brown  and 
yellow  races.  Australia  as  a  whole  does  not  look  with  a 
kindly  eye  upon  these  Easterns,  but  it  would  be  difficult 
for  the  Government  to  deny  their  right  to  work  upon  these 
grounds.  From  time  immemorial  Malay  beche-de-mer 
fishers  have  pottered  about  the  north-west  coast,  while  the 
Japanese  have  established  themselves  as  pearlers  for  a  very 

—  343  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

long  period.  It  is  difficult  to  see,  too,  how  the  industry 
would  survive  but  for  the  little  brown  men  who  go  down 
into  the  deeps  to  reap  the  yearly  pearl  shell  harvest.  White 
divers  have  not  proved  as  successful  so  far. 

Broome  is  the  centre  of  the  pearling  industry.  It  is 
here  that  the  main  squadron  of  the  fleet  is  equipped,  for 
in  the  waters  off  this  point  of  the  coast — "  the  Ninety 
Mile  Beach  " — the  shell  is  found  in  the  largest  quantities. 
That  the  supply  is  practically  inexhaustible  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that  certain  spots  on  the  ocean  bed,  after  having 
been  cleared  by  divers,  have  been  covered  in  the  course 
of  time  with  a  new  layer  of  shell.  Pearling  is  undoubtedly 
one  of  Australia's  most  lucrative  industries,  for  the  output 
is  enormous  and  the  cost  of  production  is  reasonably  low. 
The  shell  fetches  on  an  average  £200  a  ton  (it  has  reached 
the  fancy  price  of  £400)  ;  estimating  the  expenses  of  divers, 
crews  and  upkeep  of  boats,  at  £120  a  ton,  there  is  a  good 
margin  of  profit.  One  diver  is  calculated  to  bring  to  the 
surface  from  four  to  six  tons  in  a  year's  operations.  In 
a  fleet  of  twenty  luggers,  each  of  which  carries  one  diver,  a 
favourable  twelve  months'  return  will  show  a  handsome 
balance  sheet.  And  this  is  irrespective  of  what  pearls  may 
be  found,  the  value  of  these  being  placed  to  a  special  profit 
account.1 

The  dark  side  of  pearling  is  the  bad  season  of  the  year 
when  the  storms  burst  upon  that  portion  of  the  coast.  These 
hurricanes,  locally  styled  "  cock-eyed  bobs,"  make  their 
appearance  during  the  "  lay-up "  period  at  Christmas, 

1  For  a  twelve  months'  return  at  Broome  the  following  is  given  : 
"  Boats  engaged,  378  ;  value  of  boats  and  equipment,  £136,181 ;  number 
of  men  employed,  2,470  ;  quantity  of  pearl-shell  obtained,  1,534  J}  tons  ; 
value  of  pearl-shell  obtained,  £190,741 ;  value  of  pearls  obtained  (approxi- 
mate), £73,370. 

—  344  — 


A    PEARLING    LUGGER    OFF    THE    WEST    COAST. 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

but  they  are  sometimes  before  their  due  time.  Then  woe 
to  the  lugger  which  is  caught  out  in  the  open  !  In  1908 
there  were  two  such  calamities,  one  in  April  and  the  other 
in  the  following  December.  In  the  first  of  these  the  loss 
of  life  was  over  200,  while  some  forty  boats  went  down. 
That  of  December  was  almost  as  disastrous.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  terrific  force  of  these  cyclonic  storms,  it 
may  be  stated  that  some  of  the  luggers  were  hurled  ashore 
high  above  the  mangroves  and  deposited  high  and  dry 
several  hundreds  of  yards  beyond  the  beach.  It  is  the 
risk  of  this  peril  that  the  owner  of  a  fleet  must  face.  One 
such  disaster  may  deal  him  a  crushing  blow  from  which  it 
will  be  difficult  to  recover. 

Like  the  diamond  industry  of  South  Africa,  pearling  has 
its  illicit  gem  buyer.  The  majority  of  this  gentry  are 
Orientals,  some  ostensibly  engaged  in  legitimate  businesses 
on  shore,  others  working  on  the  coastal  and  Singapore 
steamers.  The  masters  of  pearling  luggers  are  still  obliged 
to  watch  their  coloured  crews  very  closely,  although  the 
traffic  in  stolen  pearls  is  not  so  great  as  it  once  was.  A 
lugger's  crew,  it  should  be  noted,  in  addition  to  white 
"  hands,"  consists  of  seven  coloured  men,  two  of  whom 
are  the  diver  and  his  tender.  The  latter  supervises  the 
diver's  movements  under  water,  supplying  him  with  air 
and  watching  for  any  signal  on  the  life-line.  Only  seven 
permits  for  coloured  labour  are  allowed  to  a  boat  by  the 
Government.  The  Immigration  Restriction  Act  provides 
heavy  penalties  for  infringement  of  this  and  other  regula- 
tions. Every  alien  thus  engaged  is  indentured  for  three 
years,  after  which,  if  he  does  not  renew  his  contract,  he 
must  be  sent  back  to  Singapore.  It  is  from  this  port  that 
the  recruits  are  annually  brought  over. 

—  345  ~ 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Not  often  does  a  very  serious  case  arise  calling  for  police 
interference.  In  Broome  itself  each  nationality  has  its 
particular  quarter,  and  usually  keeps  to  it.  At  times,  of 
course,  there  are  racial  quarrels  and  free  fights,  but  these 
troubles  are  easily  handled.  The  illicit  pearl  buyer  may 
give  a  trooper  a  long  and  difficult  chase,  and  he  is  likely 
to  prove  an  ugly  customer  to  tackle  when  cornered.  These, 
however,  are  small  affairs  compared  to  what  happened 
some  seven  years  ago,  when  some  enterprising  spirits  made 
an  effort  to  revive  the  old  trade  of  piracy  for  which  the 
north-west  coast  once  enjoyed  an  evil  reputation.  This 
is  the  story  of  it. 

In  Broome  at  the  time  were  two  pearling  owners,  Captain 
Biddies  and  Captain  Riddell.  Each  of  them  had  a  fleet 
of  luggers  out  on  the  grounds  off  Cape  Bossutt,  and  each 
was  on  the  point  of  making  his  monthly  visit  of  inspection 
in  his  schooner.  As  they  sat  together  on  the  evening 
before  their  departure  a  wager  was  laid  as  to  who  should 
be  the  first  to  reach  the  grounds.  The  next  day,  a  Sunday, 
the  two  vessels  started  on  their  race.  The  wind  was  light 
and  they  made  fair  running.  At  sundown,  however,  Captain 
Biddies  noticed  that  his  rival's  schooner,  the  Ethel,  was 
standing  farther  out  to  sea.  He  thought  this  proceeding 
strange,  and  when,  in  the  morning,  the  schooner  was  not 
to  be  seen,  he  thought  it  stranger  still.  On  his  return  to 
Broome  the  Captain  reported  the  non-arrival  of  the  Ethel 
to  the  police. 

From  Broome  the  news  was  flashed  along  the  wires  to 
Derby,  where  Inspector  W.  C.  Brophy  l  was  in  charge. 
This  officer  suspected  foul  play  on  the  part  of  the  mixed 

1  Now  Superintendent  of  Police  at  Kalgoorlie. 
—  346  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

crew,  and  promptly  communicated  with  Perth.  He  urged 
the  authorities  to  advise  the  Malay  islands,  Borneo,  Singa- 
pore and  Penang,  of  the  missing  vessel,  thinking  it  probable 
that  it  might  make  for  one  of  these  points.  His  surmise 
was  a  shrewd  one.  After  the  lapse  of  several  days  there  came 
a  message  from  the  Straits  Settlements  police  to  the  effect 
that  they  had  arrested  the  crew  of  the  Ethel.  It  only 
remained  for  West  Australian  police  officers  to  proceed  to 
Singapore  to  identify  and  secure  the  prisoners. 

At  the  subsequent  trial  at  Perth  the  chief  witness  was 
the  Chinese  cook  of  the  schooner.  He  related  how,  on 
the  night  when  the  Ethel  had  changed  her  course,  to  Captain 
Biddies'  astonishment,  a  Malay  named  Pedro  had  headed 
a  meeting  of  the  crew  and  proposed  to  them  to  seize  the 
vessel.  Having  won  them  over  to  his  plan  Pedro  had 
then  tomahawked  the  man  at  the  wheel  and  the  other  white 
man  on  deck,  and  then  gone  down  into  the  Captain's  cabin. 
Unconscious  of  any  danger  threatening  him,  Riddell  was 
looking  at  the  chart  outspread  on  the  little  table.  He 
glanced  up  quickly  at  the  sound  of  footsteps  behind  him, 
but  the  Malay  drove  his  knife  into  the  other's  back  and 
the  owner  of  the  Ethel  died  within  a  few  minutes. 

The  bodies  of  the  three  murdered  men  were  chained 
together  and  dropped  overboard  to  the  sharks.  Pedro,  as 
the  leader  of  the  conspiracy,  then  took  command  of  the 
ship.  In  true  freebooter  fashion  he  had  liquor  served  all 
round,  put  on  a  short  sword  with  a  coloured  sash,  and 
tramped  about  the  deck  like  a  "  first  chop  "  pirate.  After 
being  four  days  at  sea,  during  which  time  the  schooner 
was  cleaned  of  any  traces  of  the  crime,  Pedro  killed  the 
aboriginal  native  who  formed  one  of  the  crew  (the  rest 
were  nearly  all  Malays),  and  was  about  to  treat  the  China- 

—  347  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

man  similarly  when  the  crew  intervened  and  saved  his 
life. 

The  vessel  was  now  put  over  to  the  Malay  islands,  at 
one  of  which  in  the  dusk  of  evening  it  dropped  anchor.  All 
the  pearls,  shell  and  money  on  board  were  lowered  into 
a  small  boat.  The  party  then  rowed  ashore,  while  the 
Ethel,  scuttled,  sank  at  her  moorings.  But  the  pirates' 
enjoyment  of  their  booty  was  short.  They  were  arrested 
the  same  day,  to  be  handed  over  to  justice  as  has  been 
described.  In  the  end  Pedro  was  hanged,  the  rest  of  the 
band  being  otherwise  dealt  with. 

Another  pearling  tragedy  of  the  north-west  was  the 
murder  of  John  P.  Jones  at  Yampi  Sound,  in  January  1909. 
This  particular  locality,  which  is  a  hundred  miles  north 
of  Derby,  has  acquired  a  bad  name  through  the  treachery 
of  the  natives  found  there.  Many  pearlers  do  not  care 
about  sending  their  luggers  thither.  It  was  certainly  an 
evil  day  for  skipper  Jones  when  he  cast  anchor  in  those 
waters.  The  blacks  surprised  him  and  his  small  crew  and 
killed  them  forthwith.  After  which  they  held  a  big  cor- 
robboree  and  made  for  the  bush. 

Jones'  mysterious  disappearance  and  an  ugly  rumour 
that  found  its  way  to  Broome  led  to  Mounted  Constable 
Fletcher  being  sent  up  to  the  Sound  to  investigate  matters. 
Fletcher,  who,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  had  only  two  native 
trackers  with  him,  discovered  how  the  murder  had  been 
perpetrated,  and  proceeded  to  arrest  four  blacks  who  were 
using  the  dead  man's  dinghy.  Two  of  these  were  directly 
implicated  hi  the  crime.  He  returned  to  Derby  with  the 
prisoners,  saw  them  committed  for  trial,  and  then  returned 
to  complete  his  work.  There  were  other  murderers  and 
several  witnesses  to  be  secured. 

—  348  — 


GOLDFIELDS  AND  PEARLING  STATIONS 

Fletcher  carried  out  his  difficult  task  with  remarkable 
ability.  Five  more  blacks  who  had  helped  to  do  the  killing 
were  captured  and  conveyed  aboard  the  lugger  on  which 
he  had  sailed  to  Yampi  Sound.  One  of  the  new  prisoners, 
however,  a  big  native  known  as  Lowadda,  was  disposed 
to  make  a  fight  for  it.  The  trooper  closed  with  him  and 
a  violent  struggle  took  place,  which  resulted  in  both  falling 
overboard.  There  was  a  strong  sea  running  at  the  time. 
In  a  few  moments  both  men  were  carried  some  distance 
away  from  the  boat,  but  Fletcher  pluckily  stuck  to  his 
prize.  Eventually  they  were  swept  on  to  an  island  near 
the  coast,  where  two  other  natives  thought  they  were  quite 
equal  to  rescuing  their  comrade.  In  this,  however,  they 
were  mistaken.  The  trooper  laid  them  out  with  his  fists 
in  true  style,  and  when  a  boat  pulled  off  from  the  lugger 
to  his  aid  the  discomfited  blacks  accompanied  Lowadda 
as  fellow  prisoners. 

Of  the  seven  criminals  thus  arrested  one  cheated  the 
hangman  by  dying  in  Broome  hospital.  The  others  were 
duly  sentenced  to  death  and  executed.  Trooper  Fletcher, 
meanwhile,  received  handsome  commendation  for  his  notable 
achievement — one  of  which  the  West  Australian  police 
force  may  well  be  proud — and  was  further  rewarded  with 
a  grant  of  £50. 


—  349  — 


CHAPTER   XIX 

AMONG  THE   CATTLE-DUFFERS 

Notorious  examples — Methods  of  work — Brand  "  faking  " — The  Kellys — 

"  Plucking    a    brand  " — Police    patrols — Old    Mrs.    B A  lost 

Hereford — Where  was  the  hide  ? — Jack  Burrell — "  Tom  Tit  " — Work- 
ing a  stampede — A  trick  cow — An  opal  robbery — Bowling  out  a 
thief — Mounted  Constable  Freeman — An  arduous  trip — Benjamin 
Bridges,  horse-thief — Wonderful  tracking. 

NO  class  of  criminal,  except  the  bushranger,  has  been 
such  a  constant  source  of  trouble  to  the  Australian 
mounted  police  as  the  "  cattle-duffer."  By  this  term  is 
meant  the  professional  thief  who  preys  upon  other  people's 
stock.  He  is  an  expert  at  cutting  out  "  mickies  "  (un- 
branded  steers)  from  a  herd  and  running  them  to  some 
secluded  spot  where  they  lie  hidden  until  ready  for  dis- 
posal ;  and  he  shows  remarkable  ingenuity  in  the  "  faking  " 
of  brands.  It  is  not  likely  that  he  will  confine  himself  to 
cattle  only.  "  Horse-planting,"  which  is  horse-stealing  in  a 
similar  manner,  comes  just  as  readily  to  his  hand. 

Many  of  the  bushrangers  of  the  later  era  graduated  in 
this  school.  Several  of  the  Gardiner  gang  were  horse- 
thieves  before  they  flew  at  higher  game  ;  so,  too,  were  the 
Clarkes  and  the  Kellys.  The  last-named  were  taught  by  a 
past  master  in  the  art  of  "  duffing,"  viz.,  Harry  Power.  This 
notorious  character  was  regarded  by  the  police  as  quite  the 
smartest  of  his  class.  It  was,  perhaps,  only  natural  that  the 
criminal  instinct  should  have  found  its  outlet  in  this  form. 

—  350  — 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

The  temptations  and  opportunities  for  "  lifting  "  stock  were 
numerous,  and  the  chances  of  detection  apparently  slight. 
Very  little  of  the  country  over  which  the  cattle  or  horses 
ran  free  was  fenced  in,  and  a  great  portion  of  it — in  the 
south-eastern  states — was  well-wooded,  offering  numerous 
safe  hiding-places.  The  stock-owners,  by  their  careless 
system  of  grazing,  contributed  not  a  little  to  their  own 
loss. 

The  simplest  plan  adopted  was  to  muster  a  bunch  of 
cattle  raided  from  various  quarters  and  drive  the  beasts  by 
devious  mountain  tracks  to  some  distant  market.  A  Vic- 
torian "  duffer  "  would  sell  his  lot  in  New  South  Wales  or 
Queensland,  and  vice  versa.  Or,  again,  on  the  border,  cattle 
and  horses  belonging  to  one  State  would  be  placed  in  the 
pounds  of  the  other,  whereupon  the  thief  would  pur- 
chase them  for  the  small  sum  usually  demanded  for  such 
stock  and  resell  his  prizes  to  unsuspecting  buyers.  In  this 
way  they  were  able  to  produce  a  sufficiently  good  title. 

As  a  safeguard  against  identification  it  was  necessary, 
of  course,  to  remove  or  alter  any  brand  upon  an  animal's 
skin.  The  early  methods  of  "  faking  "  were  rough  and 
ready,  the  marks  being  merely  added  to  or  branded  over 
with  a  new  design.  Thus  a  brand  B  would  be  easily  con- 
verted into  BD  or  into  |BJ.  Where  an  owner  with  more 
originality  devised  a  monogram  such  as  "E,  comprising  his 
initials  T  and  E,  a  little  skilful  manipulation  might  change 
this  into  a  B  by  clipping  off  the  left  side  of  the  first  letter 
and  rounding  the  arms  of  the  second.  Sometimes  a  design 
was  too  intricate  to  be  thus  transformed.  In  this  event  it 
was  generally  burnt  over  so  as  to  obliterate  it,  and  a  new 
brand  was  affixed  elsewhere. 

Power  and  his  followers,  the  Kelly s,  went  "  one  better  " 
—  35i  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

in  the  "  faking  "  process.  Not  troubling  themselves  with 
branding  instruments,  they  resorted  to  iodine,  with  which 
marks  could  be  more  satisfactorily  burnt  into  the  skin.  After 
a  mob  of  stolen  horses  or  cattle  had  been  gathered  and 
driven  to  the  gully  or  ravine  in  the  mountains  where  the 
"  duffers  "  had  their  haunt,  they  were  thus  branded  with 
the  desired  mark.  The  animals  were  then  kept  until  the 
sores  had  healed  and  the  brands  looked  old.  This  scientific 
treatment  had  advantages  over  the  earlier  simpler  methods. 
It  was  more  difficult  to  detect  the  obliteration  of  a  brand 
removed  by  iodine  than  that  of  one  where  an  iron  had  been 
employed. 

At  the  present  time  cattle-duffers  are  as  wily  as  ever  they 
were,  although  their  depredations  have  been  much  restricted 
through  the  vigilance  of  the  police.  The  elaboration  of 
brands  still  proceeds  :  055  becomes  Q55,  QBE  becomes  08B, 
and  so  on.  The  variations  are  many.  One  popular  form 
of  "  faking  "  that  has  been  introduced  with  success  is  that 
of  "  plucking  a  brand."  This  is  done  by  pulling  out 
hairs  from  a  colt,  say,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  form  the  letters 
of  a  brand  on  the  skin.  Of  course,  such  a  mark  only  lasts  a 
comparatively  short  time,  as  the  hairs  grow  again  and 
obscure  it. 

A  great  check  has  been  placed  upon  stock-stealing  by  the 
regular  patrolling  of  the  main  roads  along  which  sheep, 
cattle  and  horses  are  driven.  The  mounted  police  stop  the 
droves  when  it  is  considered  advisable,  and  examine  the 
permits  to  see  that  all  is  in  order.  By  telephone  or  telegraph 
they  are  able  to  notify  the  police  of  another  district  should 
there  be  any  occasion  to  suspect  malpractices.  In  this  way 
a  new  drover,  or  one  who  is  known  to  have  been  engaged  in 
"  duffing  "  at  some  time  or  other,  is  carefully  watched.  It 

—  352  — 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

is,  therefore,  in  the  outlying  parts  that  the  thieves  of  to-day 
must  work,  and  even  there  their  chances  of  success  have 
been  much  reduced. 

The  difficulties  against  which  the  mounted  police  have 
to  contend  in  the  suppression  of  stock-stealing  are  many. 
Even  when  a  hide  is  produced,  as  is  insisted  upon  by  law 
when  fresh  meat  has  been  killed,  there  are  ways  of  evading 
detection.  It  may  be  a  hide  of  another  animal,  kept  for 
use  as  a  "  blind,"  or  it  may  have  been  skilfully  doctored. 
A  trooper  needs  to  have  a  sharp  eye  and  an  intimate  know- 
ledge of  the  cattle  in  his  own  district.  And  even  when 
he  is  morally  sure  that  he  has  located  a  thief  and  has  seen 
through  the  subterfuge,  some  chance  event  will  often  help 
the  guilty  one  out  of  the  hole  and  baffle  the  law. 

In  north-eastern  New  South  Wales  there  was  an  old 

woman,  Mrs.  B ,  who  with  her  three  daughters  was  long 

suspected  of  "  lifting  "  her  neighbour's  stock.  One  day 
a  fine  young  Hereford  steer  was  missing  from  a  station  near 
by.  There  were  only  a  few  animals  of  that  breed  then  in  the 
country,  and  it  could  be  easily  identified.  The  owner 
followed  up  the  trail  to  where  it  had  been  driven,  to  Mrs. 

B 's  home,  in  fact,  and  promptly  asked  for  his  property. 

The  lady  met  him  at  the  door  of  her  abode,  a  roughly  built 
wooden  hut  containing  two  rooms. 

"  You've  got  my  steer,  Mrs.  B ,"  said  the  stockman. 

"  Not  me,"  was  the  answer. 

"  Well,  I'm  coming  in  to  have  a  look  round." 

"  If  you  set  foot  in  my  house,  Sam  Hollams,"  exclaimed 
the  lady,  "  I'll  brain  you  !  " 

Sam  Hollams  camped  outside  to  keep  a  watch  on  the 
place,  and  sent  off  a  man  to  procure  a  search-warrant.  In 
due  course  two  police  troopers  arrived  on  the  scene,  in  the 

—  353  —  AA 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

face  of  which  authority  Mrs.  B threw  open  her  door.    On 

the  hut  being  searched  some  freshly  killed  meat  was  found 
in  a  tub,  and  this,  Hollams  firmly  believed,  represented  his 
missing  steer.  But  there  was  no  evidence.  Where  was  the 
hide  ?  Every  corner  of  the  place  was  ransacked,  and  at 

last  old  Mrs.  B herself  was  bundled  out  of  bed  to  allow  of 

that  useful  piece  of  furniture  being  examined.  Then,  from 
under  the  mattress,  was  dragged  a  hide,  but  it  was  a  white 
one  ;  that  of  a  Hereford  is,  of  course,  brown. 

Nonplussed  for  the  moment,  the  police  rode  off  to  a 
neighbouring  selector. 

"  Have  you  lost  any  cattle  lately,  Mr.  Campbell  ?  "  they 
asked. 

"  No,  I  don't  think  so,"  said  the  other. 

"  Not  a  white  cow  ?     Are  you  sure  ?  " 

"  As  sure  as  I  can  be  without  rounding  up  my  lot." 

"  Well,"  said  the  senior  of  the  two  troopers,  "  just  come 

over  to  Mrs.  B 's  and  have  a  look  at  the  hide  we've 

found." 

The  selector  followed  them  to  the  hut  and  there  identified 
the  brand  on  the  hide  as  being  his.     This  was  good  enough 

to  proceed  upon,  and  Mrs.  B was  arrested.     But  at  the 

trial  she  was  able  to  prove  that  one  of  the  young  Campbells 
had  actually  offered  her  a  cow  ;  she  had  taken  the  white 
one  by  mistake.  The  case  at  once  fell  through.  That  the 
fresh  meat  was  the  Hereford  steer  there  could  be  no  doubt. 
The  brown  hide  had  been  burnt  or  buried,  while  the  other 

skin  was  kept  to  shield  it.     Mrs.  B had  a  narrow  escape 

of  being  convicted  more  than  once  after  that  episode,  but 
though  she  was  able  to  snap  her  fingers  in  the  face  of  the 
police,  the  old  adage  about  the  pitcher  that  goes  often 
to  the  well  proved  its  truth  in  her  case.  She  was  eventually 

—  354  — 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

sent  to  prison  for  a  long  term,  and  her  part  of  the  country 
enjoyed  a  pleasing  rest  from  cattle-thieving. 

In  the  north-west  of  Australia,  in  the  Kimberleys,  some 
years  ago  there  was  a  notorious  character,  a  "  king  of  cattle- 
duffers,"  whom  we  will  call] Jack  Burrell.  He  was  an  expert 
stockman  of  the  first  grade.  When  a  large  mob  of  cattle 
had  to  be  taken  across  rivers  in  flood  time  there  was  no  one 
more  in  request  than  he.  Station  owners  would  hire  him  on 
such  occasions  and  pay  heavily  for  his  services  rather  than 
risk  their  beasts  to  less  skilful  management.  They  were 
well  aware,  at  the  same  time,  that  Burrell  would  take  toll 
from  the  mob.  That  had  to  be  put  up  with.  The  usual 
thing  that  happened  was  a  stampede  at  night.  In  the 
morning  the  cattle  would  be  rounded  up  again,  but  one  or 
two  were  sure  to  be  missing.  Burrell's  friends  knew  of  their 
whereabouts. 

A  stampede  can  be  effected  in  several  ways.  Cattle  are 
not  difficult  to  frighten.  With  Burrell  the  trick  was  as 
follows.  He  owned  a  famous  trotting  cob  named  Tom  Tit, 
which  he  had  trained  perfectly.  On  the  cattle  coming  to  a 
halting-place,  such  as  the  Black  Swamp,  near  Deniliquin, 
N.S.W.,  on  the  road  to  Sydney,  he  would  wait  till  night  and 
then  cover  himself  and  Tom  Tit  with  a  long  white  sheet.  To 
guide  the  cob  with  his  feet  was  a  simple  matter,  and  as  the 
two  plunged  into  the  mass  of  cattle  the  panic  was  set  in 
motion.  The  next  day  he  was  again  busy  on  Tom  Tit, 
earning  a  reward  for  recapturing  the  scared  animals. 

This  horse  of  Burrell's  was  almost  as  clever  as  its  master. 
In  flood  time  it  worked  alone  in  the  water  on  one  side  of  the 
surging  cattle  as  they  swam  across  a  river,  while  Burrell 
attended  to  the  other  side.  The  cob  obeyed  orders  by  word 
of  mouth  or  the  motion  of  a  hand  in  a  truly  wonderful  man- 

355 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

ner.  In  addition  to  this  valuable  helper  the  stockman 
owned  a  cow  and  a  calf,  each  of  which  he  had  trained  care- 
fully. They  were  taught  to  lead  the  mobs  over  the  rivers 
and  prevent  them  from  "  ringing,"  that  is,  circling  in  the 
water  instead  of  going  right  ahead.  Cattlemen  in  the  west 
cherish  a  vivid  memory  of  Burrell's  "  trick  cow  and  calf." 

The  end  of  Tom  Tit  was  a  sad  one.  When  he  saw  camels 
for  the  first  time  he  took  fright,  reared  and  fell  so  badly  that 
he  broke  his  legs.  There  was  no  hope  of  saving  his  life  ;  a 
police  trooper  mercifully  shot  him.  Burrell  sorrowed  greatly 
over  the  loss  of  his  faithful  servant,  and  duly  took  his 
revenge.  He  shot  fifteen  camels  before  he  went  away.  It 
was  never  proved  that  he  did  so,  for  his  rifle  could  not  be 
found,  but  the  wise  ones  had  their  own  reasons  for  knowing 
the  truth. 

Although  it  does  not  bear  on  the  subject  of  cattle-duffing, 
there  is  a  story  about  Jack  Burrell  that  may  be  considered 
worth  recalling.  It  points  the  saying  that  to  be  a  good  rogue 
you  must  be  a  clever  rogue.  A  robbery  had  occurred 
between  Whitecliffes  and  Wilcania,  a  parcel  of  opals  having 
been  snatched  from  the  coach  that  passed  over  the  route. 
The  actual  thief  was  a  youth  who  had  succumbed  to  a 
sudden  temptation,  but  Burrell  was  popularly  credited  with 
the  deed. 

"  You  must  have  made  a  good  haul  that  time,  Jack," 
said  a  friend. 

Jack  swore  that  he  wasn't  the  culprit,  as  at  the  time  of 
the  robbery  he  was  a  hundred  miles  away.  "  But,"  he 
added  significantly,  "  the  next  time  it  happens  you  can  bet 
I  shall  be  in  it !  " 

Not  many  weeks  later  the  coach  was  again  robbed, 
despite  the  fact  that  a  police  guard  sat  on  the  box-seat  by  the 

-356- 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

driver.  The  basket  containing  the  opals  had  been  placed 
in  the  rear  of  the  vehicle,  but  no  one  saw  it  disappear.  Bur- 
rell's  boast  being  recalled  to  mind,  he  was  taxed  with  the 
theft.  He  denied  it  vehemently,  and  what  was  more  to  the 
point,  was  able  to  bring  conclusive  evidence  that  he  was  at  a 
certain  township  a  good  many  miles  distant  on  the  evening 
of  the  occurrence,  both  before  the  time  of  the  robbery  and 
after.  His  evidence  was  not  only  irrefutable,  it  was  true. 
By  means  of  a  relay  of  swift  horses  he  had  ridden  from  the 
township  to  the  scene  of  the  robbery  and  back,  covering  the 
distance  hi  an  incredibly  short  time.  And  no  one  knew  this 
until  long  afterwards,  when  the  incident  had  been  for- 
gotten. 

How  a  horse-thief  was  cleverly  bowled  out  was  related 
to  the  writer  by  a  Victorian  mounted  police  inspector.  This 
officer  was  riding  along  a  bush  road  with  a  brother  trooper, 
both  being  in  plain  clothes,  when  they  met  an  individual  for 
whom  they  had  long  looked.  He  was  a  farmer  strongly 
suspected  of  stealing  horses,  but  hitherto  shrewd  enough  to 
cover  his  tracks  successfully.  The  two  policemen  reined 
in  their  animals,  and  critically  inspected  the  three  horses 
which  the  other  man  had  in  tow  behind  him. 

"  Do  you  care  about  selling  any  ?  "  asked  Inspector 
R casually. 

"  Yes,  at  my  price,"  returned  the  farmer. 

"  And  what's  that  ?  " 

"  £20  apiece,"  came  the  answer. 

The  Inspector  glanced  at  his  companion.  "  They 
wouldn't  fetch  much  in  India,  would  they  ?  "  he  queried. 
The  other  officer  gave  his  opinion  on  the  Indian  market  and 
they  exchanged  comments  on  the  animals.  This  assured  the 
farmer  that  he  had  to  bargain  with  two  genuine  dealers, 

—  357  — 


and  he  hastened  to  add  that  he  had  several  other  horses  for 
disposal. 

After  some  haggling  a  deal  was  apparently  brought  off. 
Then,  as  he  had  averred  that  the  horses  had  been  bought 
by  him  in  the  first  place,  the  farmer  was  requested  to  pro- 
duce his  receipts.  He  willingly  complied.  Inspector  R 

looked  at  them  closely,  as  also  did  his  brother  officer.  The 
papers  were  all  hi  the  same  handwriting  and  the  different 
signatures  were  obviously  from  the  same  pen. 

"  Yes,"  said  R ,  "  quite  satisfactory.  Now  we'd 

better  tell  you  who  we  are." 

Conviction  followed  quickly  upon  arrest,  and  a  danger- 
ous horse-thief  went  into  penal  servitude  for  fifteen  years. 

In  the  hunting  down  and  capturing  of  rogues  of  this 
description  police  troopers  have  frequently  to  go  very  far 
afield.  A  ride  of  two  or  three  hundred  miles  counts  for 
little  in  their  eyes.  Australia  is  a  country  of  immense  dis- 
tances, and  away  from  the  railway  line  one  must  push 
through  the  endless  leagues  of  bush  and  scrub  on  horse  or 
camel  as  may  be.  It  was  a  long  journey  that  Mounted 
Constable  Freeman,  of  the  West  Australian  force,  took  in 
the  apprehension  of  horse-thief  and  cattle-duffer  Bridges, 
some  years  back.  It  even  led  him  from  his  own  State  into 
the  recesses  of  the  Northern  Territory.  As  an  example  of 
how  a  trooper  carries  out  his  duty  after  receiving  his  instruc- 
tions it  will  bear  narration  in  full.  We  may  note,  too,  in 
passing,  the  tribute  that  is  paid  to  the  black  tracker  engaged 
in  the  pursuit. 

The  prisoner,  Benjamin  Bridges,  was  an  escapee  from 
Murrurundi  Gaol,  New  South  Wales,  where  he  had  been 
serving  a  ten  years'  sentence  for  horse-stealing.  While  in 
the  Kimberley  district  he  had  worked  on  several  stations, 

-358- 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

doing  a  little  "  duffing  "  on  his  own  account  when  possible. 
It  should  be  mentioned,  further,  that  several  constables  and 
trackers  had  previously  tried  to  get  on  the  trail  of  this  man, 
but  without  avail.  Freeman's  success  was  largely  due  to 
his  skill  as  a  bushman,  which  one  will  appreciate  the  more 
remembering  the  difficult  nature  of  the  north-west  back 
country.  Here  is  his  account  of  his  long  trip. 

REPORT   OF  POLICE    CONSTABLE   A.    FREEMAN,  REG.    NO.    192, 
RELATIVE       TO       ARREST       OF        BENJAMIN        BRIDGES. 

EAST  KIMBERLEY  DISTRICT.  Argyle  Police  Station. 

Jan.  1,  1900. 

"  I  beg  to  report  that  on  the  2nd  of  November  last, 
whilst  on  patrol  with  P.O.  McGinley  on  Argyle  Station,  I  met 
a  stranger  with  two  packhorses  and  boy.  From  description  I 
recognized  him  as  Benjamin  Bridges,  for  whom  a  warrant  is 
out  for  escaping  from  custody  both  in  Queensland  and  New 
South  Wales.  I  called  on  him  to  stand,  and  in  reply  he 
galloped  away.  We  pursued  him  until  the  police  horses 
we  were  riding  collapsed  and  he  got  out  of  our  sight.  I  then 
got  a  fresh  horse  from  the  head  stockman  on  Argyle  and  one 
for  native  assistant  Pluto,  and  tracked  him  into  the  Ord 
River  and  from  there  into  W.  Long  and  W.  Irwin's  camp 
(these  men  are  making  a  paddock  for  the  Argyle  people). 
Here  I  found  his  horse,  quite  knocked  up,  tied  up  in  the  river, 
and  from  the  tracks  concluded  that  he  had  got  a  fresh  horse 
and  gone.  Tracking  from  here  is  impossible,  owing  to  the 
great  number  of  shod  horses  about  the  camp  and  to  constant 
visits  of  men  from  Argyle  Station  and  elsewhere. 

"  I  went  back  to  Argyle  Station  and  found  P.O.  McGinley 
had  got  Bridges'  boy  and  packhorses,  went  on  to  Rosewood 
in  the  night,  and  next  day  down  on  to  the  Auvergne 

—  359  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

road,  where  I  met  Bridges'  other  boy  with  more  horses  and 
packs.  The  boy  told  me  he  had  not  seen  his  '  boss.'  I  took 
the  boy,  horses  and  packs  back  to  Rosewood,  and  next  day 
started  P.O.  McGinley  down  to  Wyndham  with  them.  I 
myself,  taking  one  native  assistant  and  Bridges'  boy, 
'  Larry,'  went  straight  through  the  bush  for  Auvergne 
Station,  where  Bridges  had  been  camping  and,  having 
satisfied  myself  that  he  had  not  been  in  that  direction,  came 
back  to  Argyle  where  I  heard  that  he  had  been  seen  in  the 
mountains  near  W.  Irwin's  camp.  I  spent  three  days  and 
nights  in  the  mountains  on  foot,  but  could  get  no  trace  of  him. 
Went  back  to  Police  Camp,  shod  fresh  horses  and  went  out  on 
top  end  of  Lissadell  Run,  got  tracks  on  Blackfellows'  Creek, 
ran  them  to  Cartridge  Springs,  found  Bridges'  horse,  '  Via- 
long,'  camped  hi  vicinity  of  the  Springs  for  three  weeks, 
leaving  horses  and  camps  in  Limestone  and  myself  and  boys 
watching  the  house  and  surrounding  hills  night  and  day. 
I  saw  tracks  of  the  offender  several  times,  but  could  make 
nothing  of  them  and  was  afraid  to  show  myself  in  the  day- 
time. 

"  On  the  13th  of  December  saw  where  McAttee  (who  is 
looking  after  Cartridge)  had  ridden  on  to  my  tracks  and  seen 
where  my  horses  were.  As  it  was  useless  to  stop  longer,  I 
went  down  to  Turkey  Creek  in  the  night  and  got  fresh 
supply  of  rations,  wired  to  headquarters  and  shod  horses, 
arrested  man  Annois  per  instructions  from  headquarters, 
and  detained  him  until  arrival  of  P.C.  O'Brien  with  warrant. 
I  then  handed  over  prisoner,  and  left  to  follow  the  tracks 
of  a  man  named  Joseph  Stevenson,  who  is,  I  know,  a  friend 
and  adherent  of  Bridges,  and  who  has  been  poking  about 
Turkey  Creek  in  a  very  suspicious  manner  for  the  last  four 
or  five  days.  Ran  his  tracks  to  Bow  River  20  miles,  saw 

—  360  — 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

where  he  had  had  a  drink  of  water  and  started  straight  back 
again.  Camped,  and  self  and  boy  spent  day  looking  for 
tracks.  About  3  p.m.  cut  track  of  man  walking  in  nailed 
boots  and  native  barefooted.  Felt  certain  this  was  my 
man,  so  followed  it  up  till  night.  Camped  near  Mt.  Pitt ; 
no  water. 

"  Next  day  (22nd)  left  camp  at  daylight  on  foot,  followed 
tracks  all  day  along  base  of  Mt.  Pitt,  all  on  stones  (wonder- 
ful tracking  here  on  part  of  native  Pluto),  and  had  terribly 
hard  time.  Could  not  make  one  mile  an  hour  ;  no  water, 
sun  very  fierce.  Saw  where  Bridges  had  come  to  an  old 
soak  just  dry,  and  had  scraped  up  wet  mud  to  rub  over  him- 
self to  cool  his  skin.  Saw  also  where  he  had  stumbled 
and  fallen  several  times,  probably  from  exhaustion.  At 
sundown  reached  spring  at  south-east  side  of  Mt.  Pitt,  saw 
where  Bridges  had  camped  about  two  or  three  days  before. 
Went  up  into  the  hill  to  try  and  escape  mosquitoes  and 
slept ;  quite  knocked  up,  no  food.  At  daylight  sent  boy 
Larry  back  for  horses,  and,  as  tracks  were  heading  for  spring 
on  east  point  of  Mt.  Pitt,  went  straight  for  it,  got  water, 
which  was  very  acceptable,  followed  tracks  all  day — track- 
ing terribly  slow,  tedious  work.  Horses  caught  us  up  at 
sundown  ;  cooked  some  food  and  had  supper.  Had  short 
sleep,  and  in  the  night  walked  to  Mt.  Eveline  (Station  Hill) 
and  tried  to  find  camp  fire.  I  knew  L.  Deignhardt  was 
camped  on  a  spring  somewhere  about  this  mountain,  and 
offender  would  be  sure  to  make  there. 

"  Could  see  no  fires,  so  returned  to  camp  at  daylight, 
had  breakfast  and  sleep  ;  afterwards  packed  up  and  went 
on  to  junction  of  Limestone  Creek  and  Bow  River.  Got 
there  at  sundown,  obtained  fresh  horse  and  rode  into  Lissadell 
Station  at  8  p.m.  All  asleep  there,  woke  up  J.  J.  Durack, 

—  361  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

manager,  ascertained  from  him  where  Deignhardt  was 
camped,  about  five  miles  from  station,  had  some  supper, 
left  station  at  10  p.m.,  went  to  within  two  miles  of  Deign- 
hardt's  camp,  let  horses  go,  and  went  on  on  foot  all  night 
trying  to  find  spring.  Very  unpleasant  owing  to  rain. 
Towards  daylight  found  camp,  got  into  it  unseen  and  saw 
all  occupants  ;  Bridges  not  there,  but  his  other  boy  was. 
Boy  told  me  that  Bridges  had  left  three  days  ago  on  horse- 
back for  Auvergne  (riding  one  shod  horse).  I  took  boy, 
went  back  and  got  horses  and  pack,  came  off  to  Lissadell 
Station,  had  dinner  (Christmas  Day),  shod  three  horses,  left 
3  p.m.  and  went  due  west  trying  to  cut  tracks.  Camped 
on  Blackfellows'  Creek. 

"  Next  morning  got  track  of  one  shod  horse  going  in 
direction  of  Denham,  followed  tracks  which  left  route 
generally  taken  over  '  jump  up  '  and  which  went  straight 
over  ranges.  I  think  Bridges  lost  his  whereabouts  here. 
We  followed  on  foot ;  terrible  job  getting  horses  over  range. 
Got  down  at  sundown  and  camped  on  Cabbage  Tree  Creek. 
Next  day  ran  tracks  to  Denham  River,  near  house,  left 
packs,  took  native  assistant  Pluto  and  rode  towards  house. 
When  near  house  saw  horse  tied  up  to  tree  outside  ;  left 
native  assistant  to  watch  it  and  told  him  if  any  man  ran 
from  the  house  towards  it,  and  I  shouted  to  him,  he  was  to 
shoot  it  and  so  prevent  further  escaping  on  horseback. 
Myself  rode  straight  to  the  house. 

"  No  one  saw  me  coming.  Just  as  I  pulled  up  in  front 
of  verandah  I  recognised  offender  in  the  room  inside,  talking 
to  some  one.  He  looked  up,  saw  me  jump  from  the  horse, 
and  with  an  exclamation  ran  out  into  the  back  verandah. 
I  rushed  after  and  overtook  him  in  corner  of  verandah  and, 
thinking  he  was  armed,  covered  him  with  my  revolver  and 

—  362  — 


AMONG  THE  CATTLE-DUFFERS 

told  him  to  stand.  He  obeyed,  and  I  called  up  the  native 
Pluto,  who  got  my  handcuffs  from  my  saddle-bag.  Having 
secured  offender  I  told  him  who  I  thought  he  was  and  form- 
ally arrested  him,  warning  him  as  to  making  any  statement. 
He  only  said,  '  You  have  caught  me  fair.  For  God's  sake 
don't  put  more  chains  on  me  than  you  can  help  !  '  I  told 
him  that  it  depended  on  himself  how  he  got  treated  and 
took  him  to  the  camp.  I  left  that  afternoon  and  came  six 
or  seven  miles  ;  next  day  came  to  the  Twenty  Mile  ;  then 
to  Wyndham,  and  handed  prisoner  over  to  Wyndham 
police. 

"  I  feel  bound  to  state  that  this  prisoner  gave  me  not 
the  slightest  trouble  during  the  time  I  had  him  under  arrest. 
I  had  him  handcuffed  day  and  night,  and  at  night  chained 
his  leg  to  my  own.  He  all  the  time  behaved  exceedingly 
well,  and  used  to  assist  in  getting  away  in  the  mornings 
by  every  means  in  his  power,  catching  and  saddling  his  own 
horse. 

"  I  was  on  the  trail  of  this  offender  from  the  2nd  of 
November  to  the  27th  of  December,  and 'during  that  time  had 
absolutely  no  real  rest  night  or  day,  and  was  exposed  to  all 
the  changes  of  the  weather.  It  is  greatly  to  this  that  I 
attribute  my  health  collapsing.  I  cannot  speak  too  highly 
of  the  unfailing  energy  and  tireless  persistency  of  native 
assistant  Pluto,  who  tracked  this  man  every  yard  of  the  wa}^ 
he  went.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  another  native  in  the 
district  who  could  do  it,  and  am  certain  there  is  not  one  who 
would  not  have  got  disheartened  and  lazy  by  our  continual 
failure  to  run  our  man  to  earth.  This  boy  was  all  the  time 
just  as  eager  and  determined  as  myself,  and  but  for  him,  I 
could  never  have  had  the  chance  of  arresting  Bridges. 
"A.  FREEMAN,  M.C.  No.  192.'' 
—  363  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

To  this  illuminating  record  it  may  be  added  that  Trooper 
Freeman  was  rewarded  with  immediate  promotion  to  the 
rank  of  corporal  and  a  money  grant  of  £50  from  the  New 
South  Wales  Government.  Of  this  sum  £5  was  to  be  laid 
out  in  purchasing  suitable  presents  for  native  tracker  Pluto. 
"  Offender  "  Bridges  was  returned  to  Sydney  under  escort, 
and  re-sentenced  to  two  years'  hard  labour. 


—  364  — 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE   QUEENSLAND   POLICE 

The  Moreton  Bay  settlement — Convict  town — Expansion — Convictism 
again — The  anti-transportation  movement — Dr.  Lang — Free  immi- 
gration— Black  troubles — Native  Mounted  Police  formed — Frederick 
Walker — Disbandment  and  re- organisation — Brutal  methods — Uni- 
form and  distribution — Early  days — Mr.  E.  B.  Kennedy — Amour 
propre — Mr.  G.  Murray — Police  force  established — Gold  discoveries 
— Mount  Morgan  mine — A  gold  escort  tragedy — Cattle-duffing  and  a 
murder — Mr.  D.  T.  Seymour,  Commissioner — Police  duties — Mr.  W.  E. 
Parry-Okeden,  I.S.O.,  Commissioner — Major  W.  G.  Cahill,  Commis- 
sioner— Rank  and  pay — Present  distribution. 

THE  discovery  of  the  Brisbane  River  in  1823  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  settling  of  the  future  great 
colony  of  Queensland.  Flinders  had  seen  its  mouth  twenty- 
four  years  earlier,  but  had  passed  on  without  suspicion  of  the 
noble  stream  so  near.  It  was  left  to  Surveyor-General 
Oxley  to  proclaim  its  existence,  and  even  then  Oxley  owed 
his  knowledge  to  two  castaway  seamen  who  had  been 
living  among  the  blacks  on  the  mainland.  The  Surveyor- 
General  had  been  sent  north  from  Sydney  with  instructions 
to  find  a  spot  suitable  for  a  convict  settlement.  The  three 
penal  establishments  of  Hobart,  Norfolk  Island  and  Port 
Macquarie  were  overcrowded  ;  a  fourth  was  necessary.  Dis- 
approving of  Port  Curtis,  his  original  destination,  Oxley 
reported  favourably  on  the  district  round  Moreton  Bay, 
into  which  the  Brisbane  empties  itself,  and  the  Government 

—  365  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

prepared  to  occupy  it.  Thus  it  was  that  Queensland  started 
on  her  career  with  the  undesirable  taint  of  convictism. 

The  first  batch  of  prisoners  was  despatched  from  Sydney 
in  September  1824,  and  eventually  settled  down  on  the 
present  site  of  Brisbane  fourteen  miles  up  the  river.  Fol- 
lowing the  system  of  the  other  convict  establishments,  that 
of  Moreton  Bay  had  its  separate  classes  of  criminals,  among 
whom  the  work  of  road-making,  building,  etc.,  was  appor- 
tioned. The  "  incorrigibles  "  were  not  few  in  number. 
Captains  Millar,  Bishop  and  Logan,  the  early  commandants, 
had  an  unenviable  task  in  ruling  the  little  settlement. 
When,  in  1829,  female  convicts  were  added  to  the  list,  the 
difficulties  were  increased  immeasurably.  The  eighteen 
years  of  convictism  which  marked  the  first  half  of  the  pre- 
separation  period  are  the  "  dark  ages  "  of  the  colony.  All 
the  barbarisms  of  Van  Diemen's  Land,  the  brutality,  cor- 
ruption and  immorality,  were  repeated,  particularly  the 
recourse  to  the  lash.  Old-timers  have  left  many  records  of 
the  terrible  scenes  that  used  to  be  witnessed  when  a  batch 
of  prisoners  underwent  flogging.  As  many  as  thirty  or  forty 
would  sometimes  receive  flagellation  in  the  two  hours  between 
eight  and  ten  in  the  morning,  the  men  being  strapped  to 
triangles,  and  we  read  that  the  cobblestones  ran  with  blood. 

The  last  draft  of  convicts  under  the  old  regime  reached 
Brisbane  in  1839.  In  New  South  Wales  the  agitation  for 
the  abolition  of  transportation  was  then  fast  gathering 
in  volume.  As  we  have  seen,  the  system  came  to  an  end  in 
the  following  year.  In  Moreton  Bay,  however,  while  the 
prison  roll  was  not  augmented,  the  conditions  remained 
practically  the  same  until  1842.  Then  news  came  that  the 
settlement  was  thrown  open  to  free  immigration,  and  shortly 
after  Lieutenant  Gorman,  the  last  of  the  commandants, 

—  366  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

resigned  the  control  of  affairs.  He  was  succeeded  by  Dr. 
Simpson,  who  had  been  appointed  Acting  Police  Magistrate 
for  the  district,  and  who,  in  turn,  was  superseded  by  Captain 
J.  C.  Wickham.  With  the  ordinary  machinery  of  Govern- 
ment for  a  free  community  provided,  and  the  public  sale  of 
lands  pushed  forward,  settlers  were  attracted  to  the  embryo 
colony.  There  was  a  wide  field  before  them.  Allan  Cun- 
ningham and  successive  explorers  had  made  known  the 
Darling  Downs  and  the  basin  of  the  Fitzroy,  and  the  west- 
ward country  of  the  Maranoa,  the  Barcoo,  and  the  Thomson, 
and  into  these  fertile,  well-watered  valleys  the  squatters 
quickly  followed. 

This  extension  of  settlement  had  the  ultimate  effect 
of  threatening  the  Moreton  Bay  district  with  a  fresh  danger 
of  convictism.  In  1849  Earl  Grey  urged  that  "  as  England 
had  spent  large  sums  of  money  in  New  South  Wales,  the 
colonists  in  return  should  assist  the  motherland  by  taking 
charge  of  some  of  her  criminals,"  and  in  support  of  this 
view  he  proposed  that  Moreton  Bay  should  be  made  a  place 
to  which  transported  felons  might  be  sent ;  and  that  it 
should  be  separated  from  New  South  Wales  for  that  purpose. 
His  proposition  received  no  small  measure  of  support  from 
the  squatters,  who  found  labour  scarce.  The  Colonial 
Secretary  intimated  that  he  intended  to  send  out  with  the 
convicts  their  wives  and  families,  together  with  the  wives 
and  families  of  military  pensioners,  and  girls  from  the  work- 
houses. In  accordance  with  this  plan  the  transport  ship 
Mount  Stuart  Elphinstone  arrived  in  the  Bay  in  July 
1849,  with  over  200  convicts  on  board.  Previous  batches, 
it  must  be  noted,  had  been  dumped  there  by  the  Hashemy 
which  the  citizens  of  Sydney  had  resolutely  turned  from 
their  shores,  and  by  the  Rudolph.  The  newcomers  were 

—  367  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

disposed  of  to  pastoralists  as  "  assigned  servants,"  but 
the  settlers  soon  had  their  eyes  opened  to  the  nature  of  their 
bargain.  Scores  of  the  bondmen  "  jumped  "  their  agree- 
ments to  find  a  more  congenial,  if  less  legitimate,  living  in 
the  towns,  and  there  arose  a  cry  for  more  adequate  police 
protection. 

The  outlying  settlers  were  those  most  in  favour  of  the 
employment  of  "  exiles,"  as  the  felon  immigrants  were 
termed.  They  had  been  denied  the  free  labour  that  was 
assisting  to  develop  the  other  colonies,  and  labour  of  some 
kind  or  another  they  must  have  at  any  price.  The  ex- 
perience of  former  years  did  not  deter  them  from  inviting  a 
revival  of  transportation.  "  I  would  rather  have  the  pick 
of  the  gaols,"  said  one  squatter,"  "  than  the  refuse  of  the 
workhouses."  And  Patrick  Leslie,  one  of  the  first  to  occupy 
the  Darling  Downs,  voiced  the  opinion  of  many  others  when 
he  stated  that  his  gang  of  twenty-two  assigned  convicts 
were  worth  any  forty  men  he  had  since  seen.  This  squatter 
party  went  still  farther.  Desirous  of  advancing  the  cause 
of  Separation  they  were  ready  to  secure  it,  if  possible,  at 
the  cost  of  ticket-of-leave  labour.  A  Northern  Districts 
Separation  Association  was  formed,  and  a  petition  was 
despatched  requesting  her  Majesty  to  erect  Moreton  Bay  into 
a  separate  colony  and  employ  it  as  a  penal  settlement. 

In  opposition  to  this  section  was  another  in  which  the 
moving  spirits  were  several  "  free  "  immigrants  who  had 
reached  the  country  under  the  auspices  of  Dr.  John  Dun- 
more  Lang.1  Anti- transportation  meetings  were  held  in 

1  The  energetic  advocate  of  encouraging  artisans  and  other  "  free  " 
emigrants  to  settle  in  Australia.  Dr.  Lang  was  largely  instrumental 
in  bringing  about  the  separation  both  of  Victoria  and  Queensland.  In 
1847  and  the  two  succeeding  years  he  chartered  three  vessels  for  Port 
Phillip,  and  three  for  Moreton  Bay,  which  brought  out  several  thousand! 

—  368  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

Brisbane,  and  the|agitation  grew  in  strength.  After  resolv- 
ing that  "  While  we  admit  that  there  is  a  great  want  of 
labour  in  this  part  of  the  colony,  there  are  no  terms,  how- 
ever favourable,  that  the  Imperial  Government  could  offer 
us  that  would  induce  us,  with  our  own  consent,  to  receive 
convicts  from  the  mother  country  to  this  part  of  the  colony," 
the  protesters  formally  petitioned  for  the  immediate  cessa- 
tion of  the  system.  Their  prayer  was  heard.  In  April  1851, 
the  Sydney  Morning  Herald  announced :  "  His  Excellency 
the  Governor  has  received  a  despatch  from  the  Secretary 
of  jState  intimating  that  her  Majesty  has  been  advised  to 
rescind  the  Order-in-Council  making  the  colony  a  penal 
settlement."  Before  this  decision  had  been  arrived  at, 
however,  the  transport  Bangalore  had  been  sent  on  her  way  to 
Moreton  Bay  with  nearly  300  "  exiles  "  and  their  families. 
She  arrived  a  few  weeks  after  the  above  official  proclama- 
tion, and  with  the  landing  of  her  human  cargo  Queensland 
saw  transportation  to  her  shores  definitely  cease. 

In  the  meantime  the  little  colony  had  other  troubles 
to  combat.  The  invasion  of  the  pastoral  lands  by  settlers 
with  their  flocks  and  herds  in  time  brought  about  the  usual 
complications  with  the  natives.  Murders  of  station  owners 
and  other  outrages  became  so  frequent  that  the  Government 
sent  a  small  detachment  of  soldiers  to  Helidon,  a  township  on 
the  road  to  the  Downs,  to  keep  the  blacks  in  order.  This 
military  guard  remained  there  for  three  years,  by  the  end 
of  which  time  that  part  of  the  country  had  been  rendered 
safe.  In  1848,  for  the  protection  of  the  squatters  on  the 
Burnett  and  Condamine  Rivers,  a  force  of  native  mounted 
police  was  raised,  this  being  the  first  corps  of  its  kind  in 

of  prospective  settlers.  During  his  political  career  Dr.  Lang  was  involved 
in  much  controversy.  He  died  at  Sydney  in  1878. 

—  369  —  BB 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Queensland.  The  troopers  were  recruited  in  New  South 
Wales  by  Frederick  Walker,  the  explorer,  who  had  as 
second  in  command  Lieutenant  Marshall.  The  experiment 
proved  highly  successful,  and  ultimately  the  force  was 
increased  to  allow  of  detachments  being  distributed  over 
the  northern  districts.  For  its  upkeep  a  tax  was  levied 
among  the  squatters  generally.  Then,  after  several  years 
of  useful  service,  the  police  were  disbanded  by  the  Govern- 
ment which  was  seeking  to  economise  and  which  was  lulled 
into  a  false  sense  of  security  by  the  comparatively  peaceful 
condition  of  the  country. 

The  folly  of  this  step  soon  became  evident.  The  Aus- 
tralian aboriginal  in  his  natural  state  must  be  ruled  by 
fear,  and  the  removal  of  the  only  check  upon  them  gave  free 
rein  to  the  natives'  inclinations.  Tragedy  now  followed 
upon  tragedy,  until  in  1857  the  Government  was  induced  to 
re-establish  the  force.  Thus  the  Native  Mounted  Police  of 
Queensland,  a  corps  that  has  been  closely  identified  with  its 
development,  came  into  being  for  the  second  time,  to 
commence  an  uninterrupted  service  that  extended  over 
forty  years. 

The  usefulness  of  the  black  troopers  in  preserving  order 
was  undoubted.  They  did  their  work,  in  a  sense,  even 
better  than  a  white  force  could  have  done  it.  But  at  the 
same  time  their  methods  were  not  always  commendable. 
The  savage  enjoyment  which  a  native  displays  in  killing 
one  of  a  different  tribe  often  impelled  the  police  to  extreme 
measures.  In  those  early  pioneering  days  an  outrage  com- 
mitted by  a  black  generally  led  to  a  wholesale  slaughtering 
of  the  offender's  tribe.  The  most  terrible  scenes  were  wit- 
nessed, the  white  officers  of  the  corps  being  often  active 
participators  in  the  massacres  or  passive  consenting  parties, 

—  370  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

powerless  to  hold  the  troopers  back  once  their  blood  lust  had 
asserted  itself. 

When  two  natives  were  reported  to  have  murdered  a 
settler  on  the  Condamine,  a  body  of  police  rode  out  to  arrest 
them.  The  blacks  were  found  holding  a  corrobboree  with 
the  rest  of  their  tribe,  and  the  troopers,  surrounding  them, 
dealt  out  so-called  justice  in  a  fiendish  manner.  Volley 
after  volley  was  fired  into  the  crowd  of  painted,  dancing 
figures,  for  whom  there  was  no  escape.  Then  they  leapt  in  to 
finish  the  work  at  closer  quarters.  An  officer  of  police,  whose 
name  is  mercifully  suppressed,  is  credited  with  having  cruelly 
tortured  a  native  boy  who  was  suspected  of  complicity  in 
some  crime.  He  ordered  the  prisoner  to  be  tied  by  his 
wrists  to  a  beam  in  the  verandah  of  the  police  barracks,  and 
then  himself  "  flogged  and  kicked  his  victim  until  he  was 
so  maimed  that  he  died." 

There  are  many — far  too  many — similar  instances  of 
brutality  placed  on  record.  What  has  been  urged  on 
the  other  side,  that  the  subjection  of  the  natives  by  force  of 
arms  was  imperative,  has  much  truth  in  it.  The  aborigines 
were  warlike  and  treacherous,  and  their  attacks  on  their 
white  neighbours  were  characterised  by  acts  of  revolting 
atrocity,  but  their  provocation  was  often  great.  The  story 
of  one  colony's  black  warfare  is  like  another's.  To  kill  and, 
if  possible,  exterminate  the  natives  has  been  the  policy 
mainly  followed  in  past  years.  When  all  is  said  and  done, 
the  treatment  of  the  blacks  by  the  mounted  police  and  by 
the  majority  of  the  squatters  must  ever  remain  a  dark  blot 
on  Queensland's  page  of  history.1 

1  In  1861  a  select  committee  of  the  Queensland  Legislative  Assembly  was 
appointed  to  conduct  an  inquiry  into  the  working  of  the  Native  Mounted 
Police  force  and  the  condition  of  the  aborigines  generally.  A  considerable 
number  of  witnesses  were  examined  and  certain  reforms  recommended. 

—  371   — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

By  1860,  the  year  following  upon  Queensland's  separa- 
tion from  New  South  Wales  and  assumption  of  responsible 
government,  the  Native  Mounted  Police  was  represented  by 
three  lieutenants,  eleven  second-lieutenants,  nine  camp 
sergeants,  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  troopers.  The  uniform 
was  of  dark  green,  the  trousers  having  a  red  stripe  down  the 
side.  The  cap  was  of  white  drill  with  a  peak  sticking  straight 
out,  but  this  was  at  times  replaced  by  one  of  heavier  mater- 
ial and  black  or  dark  green  in  colour,  with  a  red  band. 
On  active  service  in  the  bush  the  troopers  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  appearances.  Trousers  and  caps  were  the  first 
things  to  be  discarded,  and  a  tunic  might  or  might  not  be 
worn.  A  Garibaldi  shirt  enjoyed  much  popularity,  but 
for  comfort  and  convenience  the  black  policeman  preferred 
to  ride  bare  to  the  skin.  In  the  distribution  of  the  force 
a  district  was  allotted  six  or  eight  troopers  under  the  com- 
mand of  one  white  officer.  At  first  the  military  rank  of 
lieutenant  was  retained  by  the  latter,  but  after  the  passing 
of  the  Police  Bill  of  1863  officers  were  known  as  Inspectors 
and  Sub-Inspectors. 

The  "  Black  Police,"  as  the  native  mounted  troopers  are 
best  known,  were  something  of  an  irregular  force.  Mr. 
E.  B.  Kennedy,  who  served  for  many  years  with  them  hi  the 
northern  districts,  tells  us  much  hi  his  book  of  the  corps' 
earlier  days.1  No  examinations  were  required  of  those 
desirous  to  join.  So  long  as  a  man  bore  a  good  record,  could 
ride  and  understand  the  use  of  firearms,  he  was  eligible  to 
become  an  officer.  As  for  drill,  beyond  a  few  simple 
forms,  or  any  sort  of  red  tape,  there  was  nothing  to  worry 
about.  There  was  no  need  for  it,  in  fact.  The  true  "  drill  " 

1  The  Black  Police  of  Queensland,  to  which  the  reader  may  be  referred 
for  much  valuable  and  interesting  information  concerning  the  force. 

—  372  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

belonged  to  the  "  boys,"  whose  training  had  begun  as  soon 
as  they  were  able  to  walk.  To  be  able  to  scout  well,  to 
swim  and  to  fight,  were  all  the  qualifications  demanded  of 
them. 

Mr.  Kennedy  joined  the  force  as  Acting  Sub-Inspector 
at  £9  a  month  and  rations.  His  instructions,  written  out 
briefly  on  official  paper  by  his  senior  officer,  were  as  follows  : 
"  You  will  patrol  the  stations  named  in  the  margin,  render- 
ing assistance  to  the  squatters  in  the  event  of  their  calling 
on  you  for  protection  from  the  aborigines.  Keep  a  full  and 
daily  journal  of  your  doings,  etc."  Thereafter  he  was  em- 
ployed in  making  trips  of  six  or  eight  weeks'  duration  at  a 
time,  with  a  patrol  consisting  of  himself,  five  "  boys,"  and 
eight  or  ten  horses,  the  spare  ones  being  wanted  to  carry 
a  tent  and  rations.  The  troopers  were  armed  with  muzzle- 
loading  smooth-bore  carbines,  but  not  with  any  other 
weapon.  It  is  not  counted  for  wisdom  to  trust  a  black  with 
a  revolver,  any  more  than  it  is  deemed  wise  to  trust  him 
out  of  your  sight.  The  cardinal  rule  in  the  Police  has  been  : 
Keep  your  troopers,  if  armed,  in  front  of  you.  Over-con- 
fidence in  the  loyalty  of  his  "  boys  "  has  cost  more  than 
one  N.M.P.  officer  his  life,  just  as  it  did  Mounted  Constable 
Richardson  of  the  W.A.  force. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  some  safeguard  against  treachery 
in  the  fact  that  the  troopers  were  enlisted  from  different 
tribes,  among  whom  there  was  no  camaraderie.  A  black 
from  the  north  had  nothing  in  common  with  one  from  the 
south  ;  in  natural  conditions  each  would  have  killed  the  other 
with  keen  relish.  There  was,  too,  something  in  the  status 
that  was  given  the  troopers  by  their  uniform.  "  To  show 
how  they  used  to  pride  themselves  on  their  amour  propre 
and  position  under  their  officers,"  says  Mr.  Kennedy,  "  I 

—  373  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

was  talking  to  a  '  boy  '  in  a  hut  l  one  evening,  when  a  station 
hand  put  his  head  into  the  window  with  the  remark  :  '  1 

thought  I    smelt  a black  !  '     Before  I   could    realise 

what  had  happened,  there  was  a  rush,  the  trooper  seemed 
to  take  a  header  through  the  open  window  and  was  pur- 
suing the  insulter  of  his  skin,  who  only  saved  his  own  by 
gaining  the  door  of  the  main  building  and  bolting  it  behind 
him.  I  need  hardly  remark  that  all  officers  treated  their 
'  boys  '  with  as  much  civility  as  if  these  latter  had  been  the 
home-bred  Tommy  Atkins." 

There  were  many  native  raids  and  outrages  to  keep  the 
Black  Police  busy,  although  nothing  occurred  of  quite  so 
terrible  a  nature  as  the  massacre  at  Cullinaringo,  the  station 
of  Mr.  Wills,  hi  1861.  On  this  historic  occasion  no  fewer 
than  twenty-three  whites  perished  at  the  hands  of  the 
blackfellows.  They  were  avenged  by  Lieutenant  Cave,  of 
the  N.M.P.,  and  his  detachment  of  troopers.  The  police, 
under  the  able  control  of  Mr.  G.  Murray  (afterwards  chief 
magistrate  at  Brisbane),  continued  to  carry  out  their  duties 
efficiently,  and  despite  the  charges  of  cruelty  and  inhumanity 
that  have  been  levelled  against  them,  they  certainly  have 
contributed  largely  towards  the  later  development  of  the 
colony.  But  "  the  whirligig  of  time  brings  in  his  revenges." 
The  fuller  settlement  of  Queensland,  the  extension  of  the 
railway  and  telegraph  and  other  concomitants  of  civilisation, 
in  due  course  lessened  the  need  for  their  services.  In  1900 
the  corps  was  disbanded,  and  those  of  its  members  who 
cared  to  re-engage  were  attached  to  the  general  police  force 
as  native  trackers. 

1  The  barracks  for  the  accommodation  of  N.M.P.  officers  were  built 
of  logs,  roofed  with  bark.  The  black  troopers  had  "  gunyahs,"  or  huts, 
of  their  own  outside  the  main  building.  These  gunyahs,  which  stood  in  a 
line,  were  mere  sheds  of  bark  open  fio  the  air  all  round. 

—  374  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

Following  upon  the  constitution  of  Queensland  as  a 
separate  colony  in  1859  a  police  force  distinct  from  that  of  the 
Native  Mounted  Police  was  established  for  ordinary  duty  in 
the  capital.  It  was  several  years  before  white  troopers  were 
regularly  stationed  in  the  outlying  townships  ;  the  black 
police  were  sufficient  to  patrol  the  country.  One  of  the 
first  needs  for  a  white  police  force  arose  with  the  discovery 
of  gold  in  the  colony.  The  first  "  find  "  was  at  Canoona, 
on  the  Fitzroy  River  and  about  thirty  miles  from  Rockhamp- 
ton.  This  was  in  June  1858.  A  "  rush  "  thither  ensued, 
and  ere  long  fifteen  thousand  miners  had  gathered  upon 
the  field.  There  was  not  room  for  all,  and  while  some  stayed 
to  settle  on  the  land  and  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the 
future  prosperous  town  of  Rockhampton,  others  went  pros- 
pecting in  various  directions.  To  encourage  discovery  the 
Government  offered  rewards  of  large  sums. 

The  next  goldfields  to  be  opened  up  were  those  at 
Calliope,  Crocodile  Creek  and  other  places  in  the  vicinity  of 
Rockhampton  ;  at  Mount  Wheeler,  Eidsvold,  Gympie,  the 
Palmer  River,  and  Charters  Towers.  That  of  Gympie  proved 
to  be  exceedingly  rich  hi  its  returns,  several  huge  nuggets 
being  found  there,  while  Charters  Towers  has  taken  its 
place  as  the  leading  goldfield  in  the  State.  But  all  these 
discoveries  were  eclipsed  in  1878  by  the  revelation  of  the 
Mount  Morgan  mine.  Here  was  a  veritable  mountain  of 
gold,  such  as  no  one  would  have  believed  to  exist  outside  the 
pages  of  the  Arabian  Nights. 

Its  history,  moreover,  savours  of  romance.  The  hill 
was  originally  occupied  by  two  selectors,  Donald  and  Sandy 
Gordon,  who  came  to  grief  through  losing  their  cattle  from 
drought  and  other  causes.  They  then  found  it  necessary 
to  obtain  fresh  employment,  and  one  of  them,  Sandy, 

—  375  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

took  service  under  two  brothers,  named  Morgan,  at  Mount 
Wheeler.  One  day  a  piece  of  gold-bearing  stone  was  shown 
to  the  Morgans  as  a  specimen  from  the  "  run  "  owned  by  the 
Gordons.  The  former  were  practical  miners  and  investigated 
the  hill,  to  their  satisfaction.  The  "  find  "  was  no  ordinary 
one,  and  they  bargained  with  the  proprietors  for  its  sale, 
eventually  purchasing  the  selection  at  the  rate  of  £1  an 
acre.  The  portion  of  the  hill  that  was  outside  Gordon's 
fence  was  secured  later  under  mining  lease.  In  this  way  the 
Morgans  became  possessed  of  what  proved  to  be  the  most 
valuable  gold  mine  in  the  world.  The  hill  which  cost  £640 
to  buy  was  sold  within  a  few  years  for  £8,000,000.  A  com- 
pany was  ultimately  formed  to  work  it,  and  so  enormous 
has  been  the  yield  that  the  shares  have  actually  touched  a 
market  value  of  nearly  £18,000,000. 

To  this  early  period  of  Queensland's  mining  days  belongs 
one  of  the  saddest  and  most  tragic  events  in  the  annals  of 
the  trooper  police.  This  was  the  murder  of  a  sergeant  and 
constable  of  a  gold  escort  while  travelling  in  the  Peak  Downs 
district.  The  leading  figure  in  the  drama  was  John  Thomas 
Griffin,who  held  the  important  positions  of  Police  Magistrate, 
Gold  Commissioner,  Commissioner  of  Crown  Lands,  and 
Inspector  of  Police  at  the  town  of  Clermont,  two  hundred 
miles  to  the  north-west  of  Rockhampton.  At  this  place 
there  was  a  newly-opened  goldfield,  which  was  being  worked 
very  profitably.  Every  month  or  so  a  consignment  of  gold 
that  had  been  purchased  by  the  local  bank  was  sent  down 
under  escort  to  the  Australian  Joint  Stock  Bank  at  Rock- 
hampton, the  escort  then  returning  with  the  equivalent 
value  in  notes  and  bullion.  The  police*guard  consisted  of  a 
sergeant  and  two  troopers. 

Inspector  Griffin  at  the  time  had  got   into   pecuniary 
—  376  — 


BLACK    POLICE   TROOPERS    IN    BARRACKS. 
I.  A  firing  partyt  2.  In  the  "  gunyah"  lines. 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

difficulties,  but  no  one  probably  connected  this  fact  with  the 
circumstance  that  he  one  day  decided  to  accompany  the 
gold  escort  on  its  trip.  He  gave  out,  as  his  reason  for  doing 
so,  that  he  suspected  an  attempt  at  robbery  on  the  part 
of  some  bushrangers.  The  sinister  design  which  actuated 
him,  as  was  shortly  after  revealed,  was  now  thwarted  by  the 
officer  in  charge  of  the  escort,  Sergeant  Julian.  When  his 
superior  ordered  him  to  camp  at  the  Mackenzie  River  Cross- 
ing on  the  way  down  the  sergeant  refused.  He  condemned 
the  spot  as  unsafe,  owing  to  the  thickness  of  the  scrub. 
Griffin  thereupon  made  no  further  effort  to  interfere,  and 
the  party  rode  into  Rockhampton  to  deliver  up  its  charge  to 
the  bank. 

On  the  following  day  the  escort,  with  its  fresh  pack  of 
specie,  started  on  the  return  journey.  The  Inspector  accom- 
panied it  to  its  first  camp,  which  was  made  near  a  lagoon 
not  many  miles  out  of  the  town.  He  had  intended  to  leave 
the  troopers  here  and  to  make  a  visit  to  his  fiancee,  who 
lived  in  the  neighbourhood.  But,  as  things  fell  out,  this  plan 
miscarried.  In  the  evening,  while  the  three  members  of  the 
escort  were  busy  with  the  horses,  Griffin  set  the  billy  boiling 
for  tea  and  had  all  ready  for  them  when  they  came  in. 
That  he  had  tampered  with  the  pot  was  clear  to  at  least  one 
of  the  party.  The  bitter  taste  of  the  tea,  which  caused  them 
to  spit  it  out  instantly,  aroused  Julian's  suspicions,  and  he 
told  the  Inspector  that  he  wished  to  resign  his  post.  There 
had  been  bad  blood  between  the  two  men  for  some  time, 
the  sergeant  standing  in  some  dread  of  his  superior. 

The  escort  now  returned  to  Rockhampton,  where 
Julian  remained  behind.  When  a  fresh  start  was  made  one 
of  the  troopers  was  appointed  acting-sergeant  in  the  other's 
place,  so  that^the  party  consisted  of  three  all  told.  All 

—  377  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

went  well  on  the  journey  until  the  crossing  at  the  Mackenzie 
River  was  reached.  Then,  in  accordance  with  the  Inspector's 
instructions,  a  camp  was  formed  in  the  scrub.  He  himself 
purposed  going  no  farther  than  this  point,  having  left  his 
horse  at  "  Bedford's,"  a  public-house  which  they  had  passed 
a  mile  back  on  the  road.  With  Bedford  he  had  arranged 
to  ride  into  Rockhampton  early  the  next  morning. 

The  public-house  proprietor  received  his  visitor  at  the 
hour  named  and  could  not  help  remarking  upon  his  haggard 
appearance.  The  Inspector  protested  that  he  was  quite 
well  and  that  nothing  had  happened  beyond  a  scare  from 
bushrangers.  He  had  fired  off  his  pistols  in  the  night  to 
frighten  off  the  intruders.  The  two  men  then  mounted 
and  went  on  their  way,  but  at  the  lagoon  already  alluded  to 
Griffin  left  his  companion  and  turned  his  horse  in  the  direc- 
tion of  his  lady-love's  house.  That  was  all  that  was  seen  of 
him  until  three  or  four  days  afterwards,  when  a  mailman 
brought  the  startling  intelligence  that  the  two  escort 
troopers  had  been  found  dead  in  the  bush  at  the  Crossing. 
They  had  evidently  been  "stuck  up,"  robbed  and  murdered, 
as  the  camp  was  in  great  disorder  and  the  specie  bags  had 
disappeared. 

In  Rockhampton  there  was  the  utmost  consternation. 
Griffin  at  once  came  forward  and  formed  a  party  to  inquire 
into  the  matter,  the  other  members  being  Sub-Inspector 
Elliott  (the  police  officer  stationed  in  the  town),  the  bank 
manager,  and  two  doctors.  To  these  was  added  a  black 
tracker.  All  the  way  to  the  scene  of  the  tragedy  the  In- 
spector betrayed  unusual  nervousness.  He  was  seen  to  be 
suffering  under  a  great  strain,  especially  after  they  had 
passed  Bedford's  place.  Sub-Inspector  Elliott,  remembering 
particularly  the  strange  story  told  him  by  Sergeant  Julian, 

-378  - 


THE  QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

put  two  and  two  together  and  came  very  near  to  guessing 
the  truth.  His  suspicions  received  confirmation  at  the  camp, 
where  the  doctors'  examination  of  the  dead  men  proved 
that  they  had  been  poisoned  by  strychnine.  As  they  had 
evidently  shown  signs  of  recovering  from  its  effects  the 
murderer,  or  murderers,  had  given  them  their  quietus  by 
putting  a  bullet  through  the  head  of  each. 

The  black  tracker,  meanwhile,  was  busy  searching  the 
ground  all  about  the  camp,  and  the  only  tracks  he  could  find 
were  those  of  a  man  with  a  small  boot.  Into  these  footprints 
Griffin's  foot  fitted  exactly. 

"  My  God  !  "  exclaimed  the  Inspector,  putting  up  his 
hands  to  his  face.  "  I  can't  bear  this  any  longer  !  " 

Elliott  came  forward  and  touched  him  on  the  shoulder. 
"  I  arrest  you  for  the  murder  of  these  two  troopers,"  he 
said.  And,  producing  a  pair  of  handcuffs,  he  took  his  senior 
officer  prisoner. 

The  end  of  this  miserable  story  is  that  after  due  trial 
Griffin  was  convicted  of  the  crime  and  executed.  Under 
cross-examination  it  was  elicited  from  him  that  he  had 
appropriated  certain  police  funds,  among  other  peculations, 
but  nothing  could  induce  him  to  disclose  the  whereabouts 
of  the  gold  escort's  treasure.  The  secret  was  revealed 
only  at  the  last  moment  to  the  warder  who  attended  the 
condemned  man,  and  then  the  bundle  of  notes  and  gold  was 
found  to  have  been  stuffed  inside  a  hollow  log  close  by  the 
old  lagoon  camp.  It  had  been  carried  there  by  Griffin  on 
the  morning  that  he  and  Bedford  had  ridden  back  towards 
Rockhampton. 

This  tragic  tale  of  treachery  is  fortunately  without 
parallel  in  the  police  records  of  Queensland  or  any  State. 
The  other  crimes  which  stand  out  prominently  in  the  New- 

—  379  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

gate  Calendar  of  the  colony  are  associated  with  native 
raids,  cattle-stealing  and  the  like.  Among  these  there  is 
the  case  of  the  Kenneths,  that  will  be  remembered  for 
the  sensation  it  caused. 

The  Kenneth  family,  comprising  the  father  and  two  sons, 
had  a  cattle  "  run  "  on  the  South  Australian  border.  In 
their  district  they  enjoyed  an  unenviable  reputation  for 
"  duffing,"  being  very  justly  suspected  of  driving  off  other 
people's  unbranded  colts  and  steers  and  adding  them  to 
their  own  herds.  It  was  impossible  to  see,  otherwise,  how 
they  could  have  got  together  such  a  large  stock  as  they 
possessed.  One  day  a  branded  bullock  belonging  to  an 
adjacent  station  was  found  on  their  "  run,"  and  a  mounted 
constable  went  up  to  investigate  the  case.  On  his  way 
to  the  Kenneths  the  trooper  called  at  the  station  in  ques- 
tion, and,  against  his  will,  was  joined  by  the  manager  of  it. 
The  latter,  as  was  well  known,  "  had  his  knife  into  the 
offenders,"  and  the  policeman  feared  that  there  would  be 
trouble.  He  was  right.  The  presence  of  the  station  manager 
precipitated  matters. 

What  happened  was  described  by  the  native  tracker 
who  made  the  third  of  the  party.  He  was  not  on  the  spot 
at  the  first  moment  of  the  encounter,  but  as  he  was  bringing 
in  the  horses  he  heard  the  men  quarrelling  and,  turning  the 
corner  of  the  house,  saw  the  manager  knocked  down.  One 
of  the  younger  Kenneths  then  fired  at  the  fallen  man. 

"  Shoot  the  blankety  nigger  !  "  was  the  shout  that 
greeted  the  tracker  as  he  stood  surveying  the  scene.  The 
next  instant  a  bullet  whizzed  past  him,  burying  itself  hi  the 
woodwork  of  the  building.  But  though  he  was  pursued  and 
again  fired  upon  the  "  blankety  nigger  "  escaped  to  ride 
to  the  nearest  mounted  police  station  and  spread  the  news. 

—  380  — 


THE   QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

A  police  party  searched  the  Kenneths'  station  in  vain  for 
traces  of  both  the  manager  and  the  constable,  and  interro- 
gated its  inmates  with  like  ill-success.  The  Kenneths  said 
the  two  men  had  ridden  on  after  the  quarrel.  They  had 
promised  the  bullock  should  be  returned.  It  wasn't  their 
fault  that  it  had  got  on  to  their  run,  to  begin  with.  As  for 
the  shooting,  the  "  nigger  "  had  lied.  There  had  been  no 
"  gun  trouble."  This  was  all  very  plausible,  but  there  were 
some  tell-tale  shot-holes  in  the  wall  of  the  station  house. 
The  police  renewed  their  search  with  greater  zest,  and  at 
last  happened  upon  a  clue. 

In  the  remains  of  an  old  camp  fire,  at  one  end  of  the 
"  run  "  they  found  three  or  four  policemen's  buttons.  That 
was  all  left  to  tell  of  the  fate  that  had  befallen  the  missing 
men,  but  it  was  enough  to  hang  the  Kenneth  brothers.  The 
father,  against  whom  the  black  was  unable  to  directly 
testify,  was  acquitted. 

Of  the  many  mounted  police  officers  whose  names  are 
inseparably  linked  with  Queensland's  history — of  D'Arcy 
Uhr,  Poingdestre,  Aherne,  and  their  famous  contemporaries 
— it  is  impossible  to  speak  here.  Their  deeds,  for  the  most 
part,  are  chronicled  in  stray  books  of  reminiscences,  hi  the 
pages  of  De  Satge,  Edwin  Palmer,  and  other  pioneers,  but 
they  may  yet  be  gathered  together  and  so  be  given  the 
wider  audience  which  they  well  merit.  We  must  pass  on 
to  the  later  aspects  of  the  police. 

Since  the  seventies,  when  Mr.  D.  T.  Seymour  was  first 
Commissioner,  the  force  has  undergone  few  alterations.1 
Out  of  the  total  number,  less  than  a  thousand,  a  large  pro- 
portion are  mounted  men  stationed  singly,  or  in  twos  and 

1  The  later  statutes  affecting  the  administration  of  the  force  are 
"  The  Police  Act  Amendment,"  1891,  and  "  The  Police  Service  Amend- 
ment," 1900. 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

threes,  at  townships  and  settlements.  Here  their  duties 
approximate  to  those  of  the  troopers  in  other  States  ;  they 
are  Acting  Clerks  of  Petty  Sessions,  Registrars  in  several 
capacities,  Assistant  Land  Commissioners,  Licensing  In- 
spectors, Collectors  of  statistics  for  half  a  dozen  Government 
Departments,  and  so  on.  The  distinctive  offices  that  are 
to  be  noted  are  Protector  of  Aborigines  and  Inspector  of 
Pacific  Islanders.  And  in  this  connection  the  present  Com- 
missioner, Major  W.  G.  Cahill,  reiterates  the  complaint  made 
by  every  other  chief  of  police  in  the  Commonwealth.  He 
says,  in  his  last  report :  "  As  I  have  stated  previously, 
extraneous  duties  still  press  heavily  on  the  Police  as  an 
encumbrance  to  their  more  effective  services  for  ordinary 
police  duties  in  the  detection  and  prevention  of  crime,  more 
obviously  apparent  in  country  districts,  where  constant 
patrolling  is  necessary  among  the  stock-stealing  confraternity, 
whose  predatory  instincts  are  actively  alive  to  the  fact  that 
the  Police  in  many  places  are  being  tied  down  to  office  work 
for  other  Departments  when  they  should  be  out  patrolling." 

Commissioner  Cahill  was  appointed  in  1905,  having 
previously  served  in  the  force  as  Inspector.  His  immediate 
predecessor  was  Mr.  W.  E.  Parry-Okeden,  I.S.O.,  a 
Victorian  who  migrated  to  Queensland  to  take  up  pastoral 
pursuits.  After  several  years'  pioneering  work  Mr.  Parry- 
Okeden  entered  the  force  in  1870,  as  Inspector  of  Police  and 
Customs  Border  Patrol.  He  became  Commissioner  in 
1895,  and  retired  on  pension  after  ten  more  years'  service. 

The  rank  of  Superintendent  does  not  obtain  in  the  Queens- 
land police  force.  After  the  Commissioner  the  grades  (foot 
and  mounted),  with  their  rates  of  pay  per  annum  are  : 
Chief  Inspector,  £450  ;  Inspectors,  1st  class,  £400,  2nd  class 
£350 ;  Sub-Inspectors,  1st  class  £300,  2nd  class  £250, 

—  382  — 


THE  QUEENSLAND  POLICE 

3rd  class  £200  ;  Senior  Sergeants,  £170  ;  Sergeants,  from 
£152  upwards  ;  Acting-Sergeants,  from  £118  to  £144 ; 
Constables,  from  £108  to  £134  ;  Supernumeraries,  5s.  per  day. 
The  pay  of  native  trackers  ranges  from  £1  to  £1  5s.  per 
month.1  All  commissioned  officers  receive  free  quarters 
and  expenses  when  travelling  on  duty. 

In  the  matter  of  uniform  the  authorities  have  discarded 
the  old  jumper  and  loosely  fitting  cloth  jacket,  and  followed 
the  usual  model  of  blue  tunic  and  trousers  of  serge,  with  a 
white  helmet  for  full  dress  and  forage  cap  for  undress.  For 
bush  work  the  trooper  wears  a  broad-brimmed  khaki  hat 
of  felt,  turned  up  and  caught  at  one  side,  differing  from 
the  headgear  adopted  by  any  other  Commonwealth  police, 
with  the  exception  of  the  new  "  cowboy  "  hat  which  it 
is  proposed  to  introduce  in  the  Western  Australian  force. 
For  bush  work,  too,  khaki  or  moleskin  trousers  are  the  order 
of  the  day.  In  the  towns  the  trooper  changes  this  garb  for 
white  Bedford  cord  riding  breeches  and  high  black  boots 
of  the  regulation  pattern,  while  a  sword  by  his  side  adds  a 
touch  of  military  smartness  to  his  appearance.  The  carbine 
now  generally  in  use  is  the  Winchester,  but  some  divisions 
still  retain  Lee-Enfield  rifles,  or  the  older  Martini-Henry 
which  superseded  the  Snider.  In  addition  to  this  every 
mounted  man  is  armed  with  a  revolver. 

The  distribution  of  the  force  over  the  twelve  police 
districts  of  the  colony,  together  with  the  special  branches 
of  service,  covers  the  whole  area  from  the  New  South  Wales 
border,  in  the  south,  to  Thursday  Island,  at  the  top  of  Cape 
York  peninsula,  in  the  north.  It  is  an  area  of  670,500  square 

1  After  four,  eight,  and  twelve  years'  service  constables  receive  £4  a 
year  extra  for  long  service  pay.  All  unmarried  members  are  allowed 
quarters,  fuel,  and  light ;  also  married  men  having  over  five  years'  service. 
Native  trackers  are  provided  with  uniform  and  rations. 

-  383  - 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


miles.1  In  this  far  northern  tropical  district,  the  chief 
centres  of  which  are  Cairns  and  Townsville,  sugar,  rice  and 
bananas  are  grown.  This  necessitates  the  employment  of 
coloured  labour,  Kanakas  being  brought  over  from  the  South 
Sea  islands.  To  prevent  any  repetition  of  the  abuses  of 
earlier  years,  when  the  natives  were  freely  swindled  of  their 
pay  by  unscrupulous  planters,  the  Queensland  Legislature 
in  1868  passed  the  "  Polynesian  Labourers  Act  "  to  regulate 
the  island  traffic.  For  a  time  there  was  a  suspension  of  the 
system,  owing  to  the  antagonism  that  existed  towards 
coloured  labour  of  any  kind,  but  better  counsels  prevailed 
and  the  re-engagement  of  Kanakas  was  sanctioned.  One  of 
the  principal  duties  of  the  mounted  police  of  the  north  is 

1  The  distribution  of  the  Queensland  Police  Force  (foot  and  mounted) 
for  the  year  1910,  was  as  follows — 


•2 

1 

E 
I 

1 

1 

^ 
1 

B 

1 
1 

E 

M 

Districts. 

_o 

! 

§ 

1 

§> 

B 
OS 

C3 

60 
t» 

8 
3 

i 

N 

15 

H 

| 

"5 

1 

1 

M 
J= 

g 
'fl 

1 

60 

be 

1 

c 

E 

O. 

"3 

.^ 

6 

3 

M 

3 
CO 

I 

on 

1 

0 

o 

a 
CO 

o 

H 

"3 

(i1 

Brisbane  .     . 

l 

i 

1 

4 

3 

27 

42 

258 



337 

2 

Criminal  Investi- 

gation Branch 

— 

— 

1 

— 

1 

3 

9 

12 

— 

26 

— 

Cairns     . 

— 

— 

1 

1 

2 

2 

12 

59 



77 

20 

Charleville 

— 

— 

— 

1 

— 

3 

3 

25 



32 

4 

Cloncurry 

— 

— 

— 

1 

1 

— 

2 

17 

— 

21 

13 

Hughenden 

— 

— 

— 

1 

— 

2 

1 

17 

— 

21 

7 

Longreach 

— 

— 

— 

1 

— 

2 

5 

27 

— 

35 

4 

Maryborough 

— 

— 

1 

— 

3 

4 

21 

£53 

— 

82 

1 

Normanton  . 

— 

— 

1 

1 

— 

2 

5 

25 

— 

34 

13 

Rockhampton 

— 

— 

1 

— 

2 

5 

10 

53 

— 

71 

2 

Roma 

— 

— 

1 

— 

1 

4 

6 

23 

— 

35 

4 

Toowoomba 

— 

— 

1 

— 

2 

7 

16 

46 

— 

72 

4 

Townsville  . 

— 

— 

1 

2 

2 

7 

19 

74 

— 

105 

9 

Water       Police, 

Brisbane     and 

Thursdaylsland 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

2 

1 

— 

3 

4 

Supernumeraries 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

15 

15 

— 

Grand  total     . 

1 

i 

9 

12 

17 

68 

153 

690 

15 

966 

87 

—  384  — 


TROOPERS    OF    THE    QUEENSLAND    MOUNTED    POLICE. 

FULL  DRESS.  BUSH  UNIFORM  (KHAKI), 


to  inspect  the  plantations,  and  satisfy  themselves  that  the 
requirements  of  the  Government  are  being  met. 

On  Thursday  Island  are  stationed  a  sub-inspector,  one 
sergeant  and  five  constables.  At  this  spot  is  the  head  centre 
of  the  extensive  pearl-shell  and  beche-de-mer  fisheries  of 
the  north-east  coast.  As  is  the  case  with  the  west  coast 
pearling  towns,  the  population  of  the  island  is  very  mixed. 
Europeans  rub  shoulders  with  Negroes,  Malays,  Chinese, 
Japanese,  Indians,  Arabians,  Chilians,  South  Sea  Islanders 
and  other  races,  in  the  mingling  of  which  trouble  must  sooner 
or  later  arise.  Still,  the  little  squad  of  police  maintain 
order  with  a  firm  hand,  stepping  in  to  check  racial  squabbles, 
hunting  down  the  pearl  thief,  and  maintaining  a  vigilant 
watch  over  the  wily  Chinese  opium  smuggler.  A  trooper's 
billet  amid  such  surroundings  is  no  sinecure,  but  the  same 
may  be  said  of  the  Queensland  mounted  police  all  over 
the  "  back  "  country.  The  pioneer  days  have  not  yet 
altogether  ended. 


"FOR  MERITORIOUS  CONDUCT" 
Queensland   Police  Medal. 


385- 


CC 


BLACK  TRACKERS   AT   WORK 

In  olden  days — The  bushranging  era — Notable  characters — Recruiting 
— An  instructive  art — Early  schooling — Women  trackers — "  Mayella  " 
— Lost  in  the  bush — Reading  a  track — A  Murchison  story — "  That 
one  Kendy  track  " — An  object  lesson  in  scouting — A  "  jackeroo  " 
hunt — On  the  trail — Found  at  last — "  Billy  " — A  South  African 
test — Pay — Past  and  present. 

SO  much  has  been  said  already  with  regard  to  the  native 
trackers  retained  for  hunting  down  criminals  and  other 
purposes,  that  some  further  account  of  their  exploits  and 
methods  of  work  will  not  be  out  of  place.  These  individuals 
have  played,  and  still  play,  a  most  important  part  in  the 
history  of  the  mounted  police  of  Australia. 

Who  was  the  first  tracker  to  place  his  services  at  the 
disposal  of  the  authorities  it  is  impossible  to  say.  As  far 
back  as  1826  we  find  Governor  Darling  recommending  the 
engagement  of  native  assistants  by  the  police, *  but  doubtless 
their  marvellous  powers  had  been  demonstrated  long  before. 
Through  the  old  bushranging  days,  in  Tasmania  and  in  New 
South  Wales,  the  trackers  rendered  invaluable  aid  to  the 
white  troopers,  and  when  the  second  great  outbreak  occurred 
they  were  again  very  much  to  the  fore.  The  first  one  to 
become  prominent  at  this  period  was  an  aboriginal  whom 
Sergeant  Brennan,  of  Yass,  introduced  into  the  force.  This 

1  See  page  20. 
—  386  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

was  in  1862.  The  example  of  keeping  a  native  permanently 
attached  was  followed  by  Inspector  Sir  Frederick  Pottinger, 
who  had  two  trackers  with  him  at  Forbes,  in  the  Bathurst 
district.  From  that  time  there  was  never  any  doubt  as  to 
their  usefulness,  and  various  divisions  of  the  force  in  New 
South  Wales  and  Victoria  enrolled  black  trackers  in  their 
ranks. 

With  regard  to  these  it  must  be  understood  that  we  are 
speaking  of  native  trackers  apart  from  the  black  police 
corps  that  were  formed  in  early  days.  The  latter  performed 
much  excellent  work  in  this  direction,  but  their  duties  were 
mainly  those  of  ordinary  troopers.  Black  police,  for  example, 
patrolled  the  goldfields.  their  employment  being  one  cause 
that  led  to  the  miners'  revolt. 

Of  the  special  black  trackers  of  the  sixties  one  may 
mention  Emmett,  whom  Sergeant  Brennan  trained  at  Yass 
and  lent  to  Sergeant  Byrne  to  help  the  latter  in  the  hunt 
after  the  Clarkes.  Emmett  ran  the  bushrangers  very  close, 
so  close,  indeed,  that  they  and  their  friends  put  a  high  price 
on  his  head  and  made  several  attempts  to  shoot  him.  How 
Sir  Watkin  Wynne,  one  of  the  pluckiest  natives  ever  in  the 
service,  lost  an  arm  at  the  capture  of  the  Clarkes  has  been 
told.  Sad  to  say,  he  afterwards  went  to  the  bad.  The 
praise  he  received,  together  with  the  reward  money,  turned 
his  head,  and  he  drank  himself  to  death.  There  was,  too, 
"  native  assistant  Bileela"  who  for  over  sixty  miles  tracked 
the  miscreant  who  tried  to  wreck  a  train  near  Wagga  Wagga. 
Bileela  had  a  curious  career.  He  was  befriended  by  Sir 
Patrick  Jennings  of  Victoria  and  educated  at  Lyndhurst 
College,  but  this  taste  of  civilisation  was  sufficient  for  him. 
After  several  attempts  to  follow  a  settled  occupation  he 
gave  it  up  and  went  back  to  aboriginal  life  in  the  bush. 

—  387  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Many  native-born  white  Australians  were  themselves 
very  proficient  trackers  ;  it  is  enough  to  refer  to  Mounted 
Constable  Chalker,  of  the  New  South  Wales  police,  whom 
Captain  Zouch  had  with  him  in  the  Southern  Patrol.  This 
trooper  is  credited  with  some  very  clever  performances  in 
the  tracking  line. 

So  far  as  the  police  are  concerned,  the  native  who  has 
spent  many  years  among  white  men,  living  in  the  same 
surroundings,  soon  loses  his  value  as  a  tracker.  His  senses 
become  dulled.  The  wild  life  that  developed  the  blacks' 
wonderful  faculties  of  sight  and  smell  is  necessary  to  main- 
tain them  at  the  proper  pitch.  The  best  trackers  are 
invariably  those  who  are  taken  direct  from  an  aboriginal 
camp.  Any  mounted  police  officer  will  testify  to  the  truth 
of  this.  "  When  I  want  a  boy  for  bush  work,"  says  one 
Inspector,  "  I  go  straight  to  the  nearest  tribe  and  pick  out 
the  likeliest  looking  of  the  lot — one  about  seventeen  or 
eighteen,  if  possible.  After  he  has  served  me  I  send  him 
back,  knowing  that  I  can  get  him  again  if  needful,  and  that 
in  the  meantime  he  won't  be  rusting." 

The  ability  to  track  is  not  confined  to  a  limited  number. 
All  aborigines  possess  it  in  a  more  or  less  degree.  It  is 
instinctive,  hereditary,  the  outcome  of  generations  of  a  keen 
struggle  for  existence  in  a  land  where  food  is  none  too  plen- 
tiful. Australia's  native  creatures  are  few,  and  peculiar  in 
their  habits.  To  hunt  down  a  kangaroo  or  an  emu,  both  of 
them  very  rapid  in  their  flight,  calls  for  exceptional  skill. 
In  the  pursuit  of  these  and  lesser  game,  such  as  wallabies, 
wombats,  and  opossums,  the  black  must  know  how  to 
distinguish  the  separate  tracks  of  their  feet,  and  know,  too, 
whether  these  are  recent  or  old.  By  constant  practice  from 
childhood  upwards,  and  the  aid  of  an  eyesight  that  is 

—  388  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

the  keenest  of  any  savage  people  in  the  world,  he  learns 
to  read  the  story  of  a  bush  track  as  none  other  can  read 
it. 

The  schooling  of  an  aboriginal  in  this  respect  begins 
very  early.  As  a  child  he  is  set  to  play  games  in  which 
animals  and  birds  are  the  principal  figures.  Footprints  of 
various  creatures  are  drawn  by  him  in  the  sand,  seemingly 
for  amusement,  but  actually  as  part  of  his  education.  Later 
on  he  is  taken  in  hand  by  the  man  whom  he  accompanies 
into  the  bush,  learning  each  day  something  that  quickens 
his  intelligence.  Nor  is  it  only  the  boys  who  thus  develop 
this  power.  The  native  girls  and  women  are  often  quite  as 
good  at  the  game.  A  New  South  Wales  police  officer  in- 
formed the  writer  that  he  had  known  some  remarkable 
instances  of  this. 

"  Quite  the  smartest  tracker  I  ever  had,"  he  said,  "  was 
a  young  gin,  and  she  was  deaf  and  dumb.  These  defects 
may  have  intensified  her  other  faculties  ;  I  should  think 
they  did  so,  as  she  could  follow  up  a  trail  with  unerring 
certainty.  Her  father  was  a  good  tracker  in  his  time,  but 
he  went  blind  and  had  to  drop  out.  The  girl  worked  with 
him  at  first  and  picked  up  a  lot  from  the  old  man.  I've 
known  that  gin  to  find  a  horse  that  had  strayed  after  several 
others  had  tried  and  failed. 

"  Her  best  performance  happened  when  I  was  a  trooper 
up  in  the  Brewarrina  district.  A  child — a  boy  of  nine — went 
out  with  some  others  into  the  bush  for  a  pic-nic.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  afternoon  he  wandered  off  by  himself  and  got 
too  far.  They  '  cooeeyed  '  for  him,  but  didn't  receive  any 
answer.  If  he  was  within  hearing  distance  he  was  probably 
too  badly  frightened  to  shout  back.  Any  way,  he  just 
went  on  and  on  as  any  one  will  who  gets  bushed  ;  and  it's 

—  389  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

wonderful  the  distance  even  a  child  can  travel  in  the  cir- 
cumstances. 

"  The  bush  in  this  part  was  particularly  bad.  It  was 
thick,  heavily  timbered  with  gums  and  ironbarks.  When  we 
were  called  out  to  join  in  the  search  early  the  next  morning, 
I  took  the  gin,  Mayella,  with  me.  There  were  a  lot  of  people 
out  in  various  directions,  but  she  soon  picked  up  a  trail  and 
went  off  on  her  own.  She  was  riding  a  small  brown  horse, 
sitting  astride  as  native  girls  do,  while  I  was  on  my  mare. 
After  the  trail  had  taken  us  a  few  miles,  I  lost  sight  of  it 
entirely.  How  Kitty  (that  was  our  own  name  for  her)  could 
follow  it  beat  me.  But  she  was  a  wonder  !  Then  we  came 
to  a  place  where  it  stopped  dead.  Kitty  got  down  and  went 
on  her  hands  and  knees  examining  the  bushes  and  grass 
minutely,  and  shaking  her  head  with  the  little  moaning  noise 
she  used  to  make  when  troubled. 

"  '  You're  stumped,  old  girl,'  I  said  to  myself.  It  wasn't 
any  good  speaking  to  her,  you  see. 

"  But  I  was  wrong.  When  she  jumped  on  her  horse  again 
she  turned  him  sharp  off  to  the  left,  through  some  longish 
grass.  And  away  off  to  that  side,  about  forty  yards  from 
where  we  had  stopped,  she  picked  up  a  fresh  track.  Ten 
minutes  later  we  found  the  littlelchap  lying  under  a  tree  asleep. 
He  had  been  travelling  round  about  a  good  part  of  the  night 
and  was  fairly  tuckered  out.  Now,  how  that  gin  knew  that 
other  trail  was  away  off  over  there,  I  can't  say.  You  can 
call  it  instinct,  or  what  you  like.  Anyhow,  she  just  went 
straight  to  it  and  found  it !  " 

Such  a  story  might  be  deemed  incredible  were  it  not 
given  on  good 'authority.  But  it  is  little  more  marvellous 
than  many  other  stories  that  are  told  of  black  trackers. 
Where  the  ordinary  observer's  eye  cannot  see  anything  out 

—  390  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

of  the  common  an  aboriginal  will  read  a  whole  page  of  facts. 
They  literally  stare  him  in  the  face.  A  dislodged  stone,  a 
turned  leaf,  a  broken  twig,  a  few  grains  of  sand  left  on  a 
patch  of  rock — all  tell  him  something  about  what  has  passed 
that  way.  From  a  horse's  hoofmarks  he  will  tell  you  both 
the  size  of  the  animal  and  the  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
impressions  were  made.  By  the  way  a  hole  is  dug  or  a  tree 
notched  he  will  probably  tell  you  what  tribe  the  man  belongs 
to  who  did  the  act.  A  tracker  has  even  been  known  to  say 
that  the  man  (a  complete  stranger  to  him)  whose  trail  he 
was  following  was  knock-kneed,  and  he  proved  to  be  right. 
Instances  might  be  cited  without  number  ;  the  police  records 
are  full  of  them. 

In  the  Murchison  River  district  some  time  back  a  mounted 
policeman  had  an  experience  that  opened  his  eyes  to  a 
tracker's  powers.  He  was  out  on  a  patrol  with  another 
trooper,  each  having  a  native  boy  with  him.  At  a  certain 
point  the  two  men  parted  company,  one  of  them,  Kennedy, 
striking  off  to  the  south-east  in  the  direction  of  Nannine. 
The  other,  Trooper  Houlahan  (he  is  a  sergeant  at  Kalgoorlie 
now)  kept  on  his  road  due  east. 

After  having  travelled  for  five  or  six  days  Houlahan 
was  surprised  to  see  some  horse  tracks  meeting  his  trail  and 
running  parallel  to  it  for  some  little  distance.  There  were 
the  tracks  of  three  horses,  which  he  thought  an  odd  circum- 
stance. A  settler,  on  a  ride  round  his  run,  usually  has  but 
one  other  horseman  with  him.  However,  he  could  only 
note  the  fact  as  unusual,  and  he  rode  on,  letting  the  matter 
slip  from  his  mind  for  the  moment.  Presently  there  came  a 
loud  hail  from  behind.  He  turned  to  see  his  boy,  Jacky, 
waving  a  hand  excitedly. 

"  Come  here,  boss,"  he  called  out,  "  come  here." 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Houlahan  rode  back  a  few  yards  and  saw  Jacky  pointing 
eagerly  to  the  tracks. 

"  Look,  boss,"  he  said,  "  Mine  think  it  that  one  Kendy 
track." 

"  Nonsense,"  returned  the  trooper  ;  "  we  left  Kennedy 
far  behind  us.  He  hasn't  been  this  way  at  all." 

"  Mine  still  think  it,"  persisted  the  tracker.  Then,  dis- 
mounting, he  took  a  nearer  view  of  the  hoof  marks.  "  Yes, 
boss,"  he  went  on,  "  that  all  one  Kendy  track.  That  one 
big  black  horse  Kendy  ride  ;  that  grey  one  Charlie  ride  ;  that, 
little  horse  for  pack."  And  he  proceeded  to  name  the  three 
police  horses  correctly,  "  Newark,"  "Nipper,"  and  "'Fancy." 

"  You're  wrong  for  once,  Jacky4!  "  laughed  Houlahan 
"  I  tell  you  Kennedy  is  gone  to  Nannine.  He  isn't  round 
here ;  can't  be,  in  fact !  " 

But  Jacky  swore  he  wasn't  mistaken,  and  nothing  the 
other  could  say  would  move  him.  The  trooper  was  the  more 
sceptical  because  Jacky  had  certainly  only  seen  the  horses 
once  before,  and  that  was  in  August,  when  they  were  at  the 
barracks,  unshod.  It  was  hard  to  see  how  he  could  define 
their  hoof  prints  and  length  of  stride. 

They  rode  on  again  towards  their  destination,  and  some 
hours  later  met  a  settler  whom  the  trooper  knew. 

"  Hallo  !  "  cried  the  latter.  "  Going  up  to  my  place  ? 
Where  is  Kennedy  ?  I  thought  he'd  be  with  you." 

"  Kennedy  ?  "  said  Houlahan,  wonderingly. 

"  Yes,  Kennedy.  Didn't  you  meet  him  on  the  road  ? 
He  was  at  my  station  the  day  before  yesterday." 

To  his  astonishment  Houlahan  learned  that  his  fellow- 
trooper  had  changed  his  plans  and  ridden  round  that  way. 
The  tracks  they  had  passed  were  those  of  his  three  horses 
cutting  across  Houlahan 's  own  trail.  Jacky  had  identified 

—  392  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

them  exactly.  If  further  corroboration  were  needed  it  was 
supplied  by  Trooper  Kennedy  himself  when  he  and  Houlahan 
met  a  few  weeks  later. 

To  accompany  a  black  tracker  on  one  of  his  trips  is  a 
liberal  education.  It  can  be  safely  recommended  to  any 
scout — man  or  boy — as  the  most  perfect  object  lesson  he  can 
receive.  It  is  the  last  word  in  the  science  of  observation 
and  deduction.  The  tracker  rides  along  at  an  easy  pace, 
following  the  signs  with  a  rapidity  which  would  baffle  any 
but  an  expert  bushman.  He  only  dismounts  when  a 
knotty  problem  presents  itself  and  it  is  desirous  to  take  a 
look  at  the  tracks  from  another  position.  Then  he  will 
view  them  from  an  acute  angle  with  the  light  falling  upon 
them,  so  that  each  significant  detail  is  brought  out.  The 
moment  he  has  satisfied  himself  he  is  up  in  the  saddle  again 
and  off  at  a  jog-trot,  his  eyes  keenly  scanning  the  trail  before 
him.  While  thus  engaged  he  rarely  speaks.  Every  sense  is 
alert  and  strained  to  the  full.  There  is  nothing  that  escapes 
his  gaze  ;  the  rough  bush  track  and  its  surroundings  is  an 
open  book  to  him. 

You  never  lose  your  admiration  for  a  tracker's  wonderful 
skill,  though  the  performance  may  be  no  new  thing  to  you. 
Mr.  E.  B.  Kennedy  bears  witness  to  this.  It  was  always  a 
day  of  keen  excitement  for  him  when  he  was  out  on  duty 
with  his  Queensland  "  boys."  Once  it  was  to  search  for  a 
"  jackeroo,"  a  new  chum,  who  had  got  "  bushed  "  in  the 
country  inland  from  Rockhampton.  He  took  a  couple  of 
native  troopers,  the  steadiest  and  smartest  of  his  little  force, 
and  proceeded  to  the  house  of  the  squatter  for  whom  the 
lost  one  had  been  working.  Here  they  spent  the  night, 
intending  to  commence  operations  at  an  early  hour  the 
following  morning. 

—  393  — 


THE   TROOPER  POLICE 

"  By  daylight  next  day  the  '  boys'  had  brought  up  the 
horse  of  the  missing  man,  and  having  taken  a  good  look  at  his 
shoes  they  turned  him  loose  again.  Then  (with  a  supply 
of  brandy  and  milk)  we  rode  away,  after  having  the  direction 
pointed  out  at  which  the  riderless  horse  was  found  grazing. 
This  spot  proved  to  be  some  five  miles  distant,  and  the 
'  boys '  upon  reaching  it  picked  up  the  back  tracks  of  the 
animal.  Holding  to  this,  though  other  shod  horses  had 
crossed  the  trail,  we  found  that  it  had  come  at  a  gallop  from 
a  belt  of  forest  which  was  visible  on  the  far  side  of  a  great 
plain.  The  '  boys  '  galloped  along  the  tracks,  steadied 
down  after  entering  the  gum- trees,  and  then  proceeded 
cautiously,  having  to  make  a  small  cast  now  and  then,  so 
faint  were  the  signs,  even  to  them,  on  the  hard  ground  under 
the  timber.  Not  a  word  was  uttered  by  them  whilst  puzzling 
out  the  hoofmarks,  but  I  was  conscious  of  a  subdued  excite- 
ment as  I  watched  their  actions. 

"  At  length,  after  many  tortuous  windings,  during  which 
the  homeward-bound  horse  had  walked,  we  came  to  where 
he  had  galloped  out  of  a  clearing  in  the  forest.  This  had 
been  caused,  in  days  gone  by,  by  a  cyclone  or  whirlwind 
wrecking  some  of  the  great  trees.  At  this  spot  the  two 
troopers  pointed  out  something  to  each  other,  and  then  got 
off  their  horses.  I  did  likewise,  feeling  that  some  special 
discovery  had  been  made.  One  '  boy  '  held  the  three  horses  ; 
the  other  walked  on  and  pointed  out  to  me,  evidently  con- 
sidering that  I  ought  to  understand  his  hieroglyphics,  that 
here  the  white  man  was  thrown,  there  he  had  picked  himself 
up  and  run  after  the  horse,  when  failing  to  catch  it  he  had 
sat  down  on  that  log  and  smoked  ;  and,  sure  enough,  what  I 
did  see  was  a  half-burnt  wax  match  at  the  spot  indicated. 
As  we  looked  back  from  this  point,  I  noticed  that  the 

—  394  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

forest  was  very  dark  and  thick,  and  it  was  doubtless  owing 
to  this  fact  that  the  dismounted  rider  had  not  been  able  to 
see  which  way  the  horse  had  taken  ;  for  after  a  few  irresolute 
turnings  he  had  proceeded  in  quite  a  contrary  direction. 
This,  it  may  be  mentioned,  was  the  first  fatal  step  which  led 
to  his  undoing. 

"  And  now  the '  boys  '  followed  his  tracks  on  foot,  leading 
their  horses.  This  course  was  inevitable,  but  seemed  to 
me  terribly  slow  work,  considering  that  every  moment  was 
precious.  On  for  many  weary  miles  we  went,  till  at  length 
the  trackers  said  we  should  not  get  him  that  night,  but 
that  as  he  was  '  walking  strong  '  he  would  most  likely  pull 
through  if  he  found  water — so  far  we  had  seen  no  signs  of 
this.  Seeing  that  the  trail  bore  rather  to  the  right  of  our 
position,  I  ventured  to  ask  whether  it  would  not  lead  even- 
tually to  the  running  stream,  which  I  knew  was  somewhere 
out  there. 

"  '  Bel,  rnarmy  '  (no,  master),  they  answered  with  a 
pitying  smile,  as  they  pointed  out  a  line  of  mountains  in  quite 
another  part  of  the  country,  which  they  averred  dominated 
that  sparkling  brook  ;  and  then,  as  if  interpreting  my  own 
thoughts,  informed  me  that  we  must  find  water  for  ourselves 
and  horses  before  long,  preparatory  to  forming  a  camp  for 
the  night.  One  of  them  then  ascended  a  tall  tree  to  its  very 
top,  and,  having  apparently  thus  taken  in  the  lie  of  the 
country,  descended,  and  with  his  tomahawk  blazed  the  trunk 
all  round.  Then,  quitting  the  trail,  he  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  off  at  a  tangent,  merely  remarking  as  he  pointed 
with  his  chin  (the  customary  gesture),  '  I  believe  water  sit 
down  there.'  We  had  been  suffering  from  thirst  for  some 
time  now,  and,  like  most  ^men  under  similar  conditions, 
glad  thoughts  arose  in  my  mind  of  bubbling  springs  and 

—  395  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

cool  water  affording  unlimited  '  drinks  '  of  the  life-giving 
fluid. 

"  Alas,  for  the  reality  !  We  came  at  last  to  a  deep  defile 
in  the  forest,  and  having  with  some  trouble  ridden  the  horses 
down  its  steep  banks,  the  dry  bed  of  a  small  creek  presented 
itself.  We  followed  this  down  in  single  file,  when  the  lead- 
ing '  boy,'  uttering  an  exclamation  of  disgust,  threw  himself 
from  his  horse,  which  I  then  saw  was  making  frantic  efforts 
to  rush  into  a  sort  of  scoop-out  in  the  ravine.  The  others 
tried  to  follow  suit,  and  we  had  difficulty  in  restraining  the 
poor  beasts,  who  had  smelt  water.  And  what  a  miserable 
puddle  it  was  !  The  quick  eye  of  the  '  boy  '  had  seen  that 
any  one  of  our  steeds  would  have  drunk  most  of  it  up  and 
rendered  the  residue  undrinkable  by  stirring  up  the  mud.  So 
he  saved  the  situation  by  his  warning.  It  took  two  of  us 
all  our  time  to  hold  the  animals,  whilst  the  third  man  care- 
fully dipped  out  about  a  gallon  of  the  precious  liquid  with  a 
pint  pot,  pouring  it  into  our  largest  billy.  In  spite  of  its 
being  warm,  and  spiced  with  gum-leaf  juice,  the  drink  all 
round  proved  most  refreshing,  and  we  were  able  to  smoke 
again.  After  filling  the  can  once  more  for  a  big  brew  of  tea, 
we  waited  sufficiently  long  for  the  small  hole  to  fill  up,  and  at 
last  partially  watered  the  horses  by  means  of  an  india-rubber 
basin  we  had  with  us.  They  were  then  hobbled  out,  and  as 
the  dew  fell  copiously  that  night,  and  there  was  a  fair 
amount  of  herbage,  they  proved  pretty  fit  by  the  next 
morning. 

"  There  was  little  more  than  a  pint  of  muddy  water  left 
in  the  hole  when  we  looked  into  it  at  sunrise  the  next  day, 
so  the  source  had  evidently  stopped  running.  Now  I 
wondered,  as  we  prepared  to  mount  after  our  night's  rest, 
whether  the  trackers  would  make  a  cast,  and  so  hit  off  the 

—  396  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

trail,  or  return  to  the  blazed  tree.  They  chose  the  latter 
course,  doubtless  for  some  good  reason  known  to  themselves, 
and  picked  up  the  footsteps  at  once.  Shortly  after  we  had 
made  this  fresh  start  the  course  of  the  wanderer  proved 
most  erratic,  circling  around  the  belts  of  timber  to  the  right, 
again  to  the  left,  without  either  aim  or  object.  It  was 
evident  that  the  man  we  were  hunting  had  no  compass  with 
him  ;  further,  that  he  was  becoming  wildly  bewildered. 
We  followed  the  errant  footmarks  thus  for  some  two  hours, 
when  they  suddenly  took  a  straight  course,  and  looking 
ahead  the  troopers  pointed  out  a  fringe  of  dark-leaved  trees, 
which,  as  I  knew  of  old,  denoted  the  channel  of  a  water- 
course, and  this  it  proved  to  be,  but  utterly  dried  up.  Into 
this  the  feet  of  the  exhausted  man  had  taken  him,  and  in  it 
his  hands  had  scraped  deeply  in  the  sand,  but  to  no  purpose, 
and  we  knew  now  that  he  had  not  met  with  water  during  the 
whole  of  his  lonely  wanderings." 

But  the  hapless  "  jackeroo  "  was  not  far  off.  The  blacks 
ran  his  tracks  down  the  sandy  bed  and  presently  returned 
to  announce  :  "  That  fellow  sit  down  there,  that  fellow 
bong  (dead)."  A  native  dislikes  handling  the  corpse  of  a 
white  man,  and  the  two  boys  left  Mr.  Kennedy  to  inspect 
the  body  by  himself.  Fortunately  the  trackers'  surmise 
proved  incorrect ;  the  poor  fellow  was  not  "  bong  "  but 
"  budgery  "  (all  right),  in  the  sense  that  he  was  still  alive. 
He  was  in  a  pitiable  condition  through  lack  of  food  and 
drink,  and  it  took  some  time  before  he  was  sufficiently 
restored  to  be  able  to  walk  any  distance.  However,  the 
party  returned  him  safely  to  his  home,  where  he  picked  up 
strength  again  within  a  few  weeks. 

The  above  experience  conveys  to  us  a  clear  idea  of  a 
black  tracker's  methods  in  following  a  trail,  at  the  same 

~  397  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

time  that  it  gives  us  an  illustration  of  the  noble  work  per- 
formed by  the  mounted  police.  No  one  is  ever  more  ready 
than  the  trooper  to  set  out  in  search  of  a  person  lost  in  the 
bush  ;  no  one  is  more  indefatigable  in  his  efforts.  It  is  in 
the  country,  in  the  back-blocks,  that  the  police  receive 
their  due  meed  of  appreciation.  Your  townsman,  safe 
within  his  sheltered,  well-ordered  streets,  is  too  apt  to  regard 
the  trooper  with  indifference.  He  sees  that  worthy  at  parades 
and  on  show  days,  in  all  the  glory  of  full  dress — white 
helmet,  Bedford  cord  riding  breeches,  polished  high  boots, 
and  dangling  sword — and  if  his  eye  is  pleased  with  the 
spectacle  that  is  probably  all.  Many  of  us  will  do  well  to 
remember  that  there  are  two  sides  to  the  picture. 

Yet  another  remarkable  display  of  tracking  that  is  on 
record  occurred  in  South  Africa,  at  the  time  of  the  late  Boer 
War.  With  one  of  the  Australian  contingents  was  a  native 
tracker  named  Billy.  In  an  officers'  mess  one  evening  the 
subject  of  scouting  came  up  for  discussion,  and  when  an 
Australian  who  was  present  sang  the  praises  of  the  aboriginal 
there  was  a  chorus  of  disbelief.  He  was  accused  of  "  blow- 
ing." With  all  due  respect  to  the  black's  ability  one  couldn't 
be  expected  to  swallow  fairy  tales  ! 

"  Very  good,"  said  the  Australian.  "  Perhaps  you'll 
believe  your  own  eyes.  I'll  bet  you  fellows  that  our  man 
Billy  will  track  any  of  you  wherever  you  like  to  go,  and  that 
he  will  bring  back  a  correct  report  of  your  doings." 

The  wager  was  snapped  up  promptly,  and  a  day  was 
appointed  for  the  test.  It  was  arranged  that  five  British 
officers  should  start,  at  different  times  and  in  different 
directions,  two  of  them  being  on  foot  and  three  on  horseback. 
Billy,  of  course,  was  not  to  see  where  they  went. 

This  programme  was  carried  out,  and  the  tracker  was 
—  398  — 


BLACK  TRACKERS  AT  WORK 

placed  at  the  starting-point  after  a  proper  interval  had 
elapsed.  He  quickly  picked  up  a  track  and  followed  it  for  a 
stated  time,  doing  the  same  with  the  four  other  tracks,  so 
that  all  were  covered  well  before  dark.  Then  he  returned 
to  tell  his  story  to  the  expectant  officers,  the  five  whom  he 
had  tracked  producing  their  note-books  to  check  the  details. 

"  The  tracker,"  says  Mr.  E.  B.  Kennedy,  who  is  again  our 
authority,  "  first  stating  that  the  men  had  chosen  their 
various  routes  over  all  the  hard  and  rocky  ground  of  the 
neighbouring  veldt,  then  proceeded  to  draw  five  lines  hi  the 
sand,  and  descanted  on  each  track.  Those  of  the  mounted 
men  he  had  followed  at  a  run.  He  described  how  one  had 
got  off  his  horse  and  had  then  lit  his  pipe,  producing  the 
half-burnt  match  to  prove  it.  Another  had  been  thrown 
by  his  mount  putting  its  foot  into  a  hole  whilst  going  at  a 
canter  ;  the  horse  had  then  bolted,  and  the  rider  had 
caught  it  within  a  mile.  The  third  had  got  off  his  horse  and 
walked  into  the  shade  of  some  trees,  and  having  tied  up  his 
charger  had  climbed  one  of  these,  presumably  to  get  a  view, 
as  there  was  neither  'possum  nor '  sugar-:bag '  in  it,  said  Billy. 

"  The  footmen  had  given  a  little  more  trouble,  especially 
one  man  whom  the  '  boy  '  described  as  '  silly  fellow  '  be- 
cause he  had  gone  in  his  socks,  had  cut  his  foot  at  one  point, 
and  gone  lame  for  the  rest  of  his  journey  ;  a  piece  of  fluff 
from  a  sock  was  brought  back  as  one  proof,  whilst  the  officer 
allowed  the  accident  to  his  foot  to  be  true.  Dark  brown, 
light  brown,  and  grey  hairs  represented  the  three  horses. 
In  fact,  Billy  proved  beyond  doubt  that  he  had  run  and  read 
every  track  faithfully,  by  recording  many  other  minute 
finds  and  incidents. 

"  The  officers  were  thoroughly  convinced,  and  willingly 
handed  over  their  bets  to  the  Australian." 

—  399  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

For  what  remuneration,  it  may  be  asked,  does  the  intelli- 
gent aboriginal  offer  his  services  ?  Generally  speaking  there 
is  no  fixed  sum.  The  trackers  who  were  summoned  from 
Queensland  to  aid  the  Victorian  police  in  the  hunt  after  the 
Kellys,  were  paid  £3  a  month  each,  with  uniform,  quarters, 
and  rations  !  This  was  a  special  rate.  Present  day  trackers 
such  as  "  Paddy  "  and  "  Leo,"  who  are  on  the  South  Aus- 
tralian police  staff,  or  the  two  natives  in  the  Victorian  force, 
stationed  at  the  stud  depot  at  Dandenong,  will  receive 
a  regular  salary.  Others  who  are  engaged  by  individual 
troopers,  as  occasion  requires,  make  their  bargain  indepen- 
dently. Sometimes  the  pay  is  made  in  cash,  sometimes 
in  cash  and  goods.  In  former  years,  when  the  police  pay 
was  not  so  high  as  it  is  at  the  present  time,  the  average 
allowance  for  the  keep  of  a  native  tracker  was  2s.  a  day. 
Out  of  this  sum  there  were  flour,  sugar  and  tobacco  to  be 
bought.  "  Black  tobacco  "  (the  only  kind  then  procurable) 
cost  7s.  per  pound,  twenty-four  sticks  going  to  the  weight. 
In  winter,  with  molasses  mixed  with  it,  the  tobacco  made 
eighteen  sticks.  As  the  trooper,  further,  had  to  clothe  his 
assistant,  with  shirts  at  8s.  each,  moleskin  trousers  at 
10s.  and  boots  from  12s  to  15s.  a  pair,  to  say  nothing  of 
hats,  there  was  not  much  margin  for  luxuries. 

In  those  days,  however,  a  native  was  more  easily  satis- 
fied. If  he  returned  to  his  camp  with  a  little  money  and 
various  useful  presents  he  was  a  comparatively  rich  man. 
Nowadays  the  black  tracker  has  come  to  understand  his 
value,  and  is  ready  to  insist  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire. 


—  400  — 


TYPES    OF    NATIVE    TRACKERS, 
i.  "  LEO."  2.  "  PADDY"  (profile  and  full  face). 


CHAPTER   XXII 

THE   POLICE   TROOPER  OF    TO-DAY 

Entering  the  force — Preliminary  tests — At  the  police  depfit — A  day's 
routine — The  riding  school — Drill — "  First)  Aid  " — Class  work — 
End  of  probation — Practical  education — Manifold  duties — Com- 
pensations— A  long  journey — "  Hatters  " — The  lighter  side — Wanted 
a  divorce — A  Queensland  episode — Summing  up.  „, 

WE  have  followed  the  mounted  policeman  through  his 
varied  career  in  the  several  States  of  the  Common- 
wealth ;  we  have  watched  him  at  work  in  many  capacities, 
in  town  and  country,  on  goldfield  and  pearling  ground,  in 
bush  and  scrub,  north,  south,  east  and  west.  We  have 
accompanied  him  through  the  stirring  pioneering  days, 
seen  him  pitted  against  bushranger,  cattle-thief  and  savage 
black,  and  seen  him,  too,  come  through  the  ordeal  bravely 
and  well.  It  may  now  be  asked,  what  manner  of  man  is 
the  trooper  of  the  present  day,  and  how  is  he  trained  for  the 
duties  that  he  has  to  perform  ? 

Some  little  insight  has  been  given  already  into  the  mode 
of  entrance  into  one  or  more  of  the  police  services.  To 
properly  comprehend,  however,  the  nature  of  a  trooper's 
schooling  and  his  evolution  from  the  raw  product  into  the 
finished  article,  we  cannot  do  better  than  follow  a  recruit 
through  his  various  stages.  No  particular  force  need 
be  stated  ;  except  in  a  few  minor  details  the  methods  of 
training  are  alike  in  all. 

—  401  —  DD 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

The  applicant  for  a  post  as  mounted  constable  in  the  first 
place  receives  a  form  which  he  is  required  to  fill  up.  This 
gives  the  necessary  qualifications  of  candidates  and  includes 
a  list  of  questions  bearing  on  character,  past  record,  and  other 
important  points.1  Assuming  that  his  application  has  been 
accepted  our  would-be  trooper  policeman  presents  himself 
at  the  headquarters  office,  where  his  measurements  are  taken, 
to  ensure  his  being  up  to  the  requisite  standard.  The  next 
step  is  personal  inspection  by  the  Commissioner.  The  chief 
puts  the  candidate  through  a  cross-examination,  checking 
the  replies  by  the  papers  before  him,  and  satisfies  himself 
that  the  other  is  the  right  type  of  man.  There  are  then  three 
more  tests  to  be  passed,  educational,  riding  and  medical. 
The  first  of  these  is  not  severe  ;  it  is  to  horsemanship  that 
most  attention  is  paid,  to  good  hands  and  an  easy  seat  in  the 
saddle.  The  practised  eye  of  the  riding-instructor  quickly 
sums  up  a  man's  capabilities. 

Having  passed  these  preliminary  tests,  and  there  being  a 
vacancy  in  the  force,  the  candidate  is  sent  to  the  police 
depot  to  enter  upon  his  probationary  period.  Here  he  is 
provided  with  his  kit  and  equipment,  with  helmet,  cap, 
tunic,  riding  breeches,  boots,  leggings,  spurs,  gloves,  button 
brushes,  etc.,  and  saddlery.  At  the  stables  he  is  allotted  a 
horse,  which  he  will  himself  groom  and  otherwise  look 
after.  In  the  course  of  the  next  day  or  two  he  has  explained 
to  him  the  mysteries  of  putting  a  kit  together,  bedding  down 
a  horse,  burnishing  a  sword,  and  generally  cleaning  his 
accoutrements.  Everything  must  be  "  just  so  "  in  this 
respect,  as  spick  and  span  as  in  a  first-class  line  regiment. 
The  slacker  will  pay  dearly  for  slovenliness. 

On  the  morning  after  his  arrival  at  the  depot  the  recruit 

1  See  Appendix  E. 
—  402  — 


THE  POLICE  TROOPER  OF  TO-DAY 

has  his  first  taste  of  routine  life.  Here  is  one  day's  pro- 
gramme, as  followed  in  an  eastern  state's  police  force  : — 

5.45  a.m.     Rise  ;   fold  up  bed  and  bedding. 

6.0.  Stables  ;  clean  out  stables,  stack  up  clean  bedding 
and  water  horse. 

7.0  to  7.30.  Clean  and  feed  horse,  and  get  kit  and 
stable  ready  for  inspection. 

9.30.  Parade  for  inspection.  Afterwards  stand  by 
bed  while  beds  and  barrack  rooms  are  inspected  by  officer  in 
charge. 

10.0.  Parade  on  drill  ground  for  dismounted  drill, 
with  carbine  or  sword. 

10.30.  Riding  school.  Afterwards  take  off  saddlery, 
clean  it  and  water  horse. 

12.0  a.m.  Prepare  forage  for  next  twenty-four  hours. 
Nose-bags  to  be  filled  up  with  proper  proportions  of  rations, 
and  horses  fed. 

2.0.p.m.  Parade  for  an  hour's  drill  (dismounted). 

3.0  to  5.0.  Thoroughly  clean  kit,  groom  horse  and  have 
it  ready  for  inspection. 

5.0.  Water  and  feed  horse  and  bed  it  down  for  the 
night  and  leave  stable  clean. 

Every  recruit  takes  turn  of  duty  as  stable  guard  from 
6.0  a.m.  to  6.0  p.m.,  the  relieving  guard  going  on  duty  from 
6.30  to  9.30  p.m.,  and  the  night  guard  from  9-30  p.m.  to 
6.0  a.m.  At  9.30  p.m.,  unless  on  guard  or  on  leave,  he  must 
stand  by  his  bed  at  roll-call. 

In  the  riding  school  during  the  first  three  weeks  the 
recruit  dispenses  with  stirrups.  He  advances  to  these  and 
spurs  as  he  progresses.  Particular  attention  is  paid  to  the 
control  of  the  horse,  the  average  rider,  be  he  ever  so  good  a 
bushman,  using  his  hands  more  than  his  legs.  Apart  from 

—  403  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

exercise  in  trotting,  galloping  and  other  movements  the  new 
hand  is  taught  how  to  fit  his  saddlery  correctly,  how  to  apply 
the  proper  aids  in  controlling  his  mount,  and  further,  how 
to  shoe  it  and  tend  to  it  as  he  will  have  to  do  in  the  course  of 
duty  when  a  full-fledged  trooper. 

The  drill  (mounted)  includes  cavalry  sword  exercise, 
pursuing  practice,  manual  and  firing  exercise,  and  mounting 
and  dismounting  with  carbine.  There  is  also  revolver 
practice  both  in  and  out  of  the  saddle.  For  improvement  in 
marksmanship  the  novice  undergoes  a  course  of  instruction 
at  the  butts.  The  physical  drill  is  a  part  of  the  training 
which  is  carefully  supervised  in  every  police  force.  A  depot 
barracks  is  provided  with  an  up-to-date,  well-equipped 
gymnasium  under  the  charge  of  a  competent  instructor,  and 
herein  the  men  are  daily  exercised.  The  useful  art  of  ju- 
jitsu,  of  late  years,  has  been  taken  up  by  the  police,  and  it 
bids  fair  to  become  a  general  accomplishment. 

Swimming  being  an  essential  qualification  of  a  trooper 
policeman  it  follows  that  he  must  receive  instruction  in  life- 
saving.  In  some  services  the  men  are  encouraged  to  attend 
ambulance  classes  and  to  learn  "  first  aid,"  but  this  is  not 
yet  compulsory.  That  it  should  be  so  has  been  urged 
strongly,  and  in  view  of  the  isolated  life  led  by  many  troopers 
in  the  back-blocks  such  knowledge  would  be  of  the  utmost 
value.  In  this  connection  it  may  be  noted  that  the  West 
Australian  force  makes  a  special  feature  of  this  class  of  work. 
One  of  its  members,  Sergeant  Smith,  now  stationed  at  the 
Perth  headquarter  barracks,  has  been  recently  awarded  the 
Distinguished  Service  Medal  by  the  Royal  Life-Saving 
Society. 

On  the  educational  side  the  young  recruit's  training  is 
quite  as  thorough.  There  are  lectures  on  police  rules  and 

—  404  — 


THE  POLICE  TROOPER  OF  TO-DAY 

discipline  to  be  attended,  lectures  and  demonstrations  on 
the  system  of  taking  finger-prints,  and  lectures  on  the  various 
statutes  affecting  the  force.  By  attending  police  courts  he 
learns  how  evidence  should,  and  should  not,  be  given,  and 
by  preparing  papers  on  imaginary  examples  he  studies  the 
art  of  presenting  a  case  in  correct  official  form.  The  clerical 
work  that  falls  to  a  mounted  constable  is  no  small  part  of  his 
duty.  Reference  has  been  made  more  than  once  to  the 
assistance  that  the  police  afford  various  Government  depart- 
ments in  the  accumulation  of  statistics  and  general  informa- 
tion. Our  probationer,  therefore,  must  be  equal  to  making 
out  careful,  detailed  returns  on  agricultural,  pastoral, 
mining  and  other  industries.  There  is  no  knowing  what  a 
trooper  may  be  asked  to  report  upon  :  he  is  one  of  the  first 
people  to  whom  a  department  turns  when  it  requires  facts 
and  figures  on  some  special  subject. 

We  will  say  that  the  would-be  mounted  policeman  has 
successfully  survived  his  probationary  period  of  twelve 
months.  He  is  now  ready^to  be  drafted  to  a  country  district, 
to  be  broken  in  to  the  actual  life  of  a  trooper.  So  far  as  he 
knows,  he  is  well  primed  for  his  duties  ;  he  has  the  Parlia- 
mentary Acts  at  his  fingers'ends  and  a  very  proper  confidence 
in  his  own  ability  to  interpret  the  law.  There  comes  now 
the  commencement  of  an  education — a  practical  education 
— that  will  set  the  seal  upon  his  training.  His  experience 
may  be  said  to  justify  the  old  card-playing  dictum  that 
"  whist  begins  where  Cavendish  leaves  off."  He  finds  that 
the  unexpected  is  always  happening  and  that  he  is  con- 
stantly being  confronted  with  the  unprecedented.  Here 
comes  the  opportunity  for  him  to  display  those  qualities  of 
judgment,  decision  and  tact  which  are  absolutely  essential 
to  his  success.  He  must  learn  to  think  and  act  quickly, 

—  405  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

to  be  lenient  or  severe  as  occasion  demands — even  to  shut  his 
eyes  to  a  breach  of  the  law,  maybe.  His  position,  particu- 
larly if  he  is  the  only  constable  in  his  district,  is  an  onerous 
one,  for  to  him  everybody  will  come  when  difficulties  arise. 
Life  in  a  small,  scattered  settlement  is  made  up  of  small 
things.  There  will  be  much  to  try  his  temper  and  test  his 
courage. 

Above  all  things,  the  trooper  policeman  must  be  "a 
whale  for  work."  He  is  the  only  public  servant — the 
only  working  man,  indeed — in  Australia  for  whom  there  is 
no  eight-hours  day.  His  work  begins  at  any  time  and  it 
ends  similarly,  if  it  ever  does  end.  From  a  week's  trip  after 
a  horse-thief  or  a  black  raider  he  returns  to  his  office  to  find 
a  heap  of  letters  awaiting  replies.  "Mr.  So-and-So  of  the 
Public  Lands  Department  desires  Mounted  Constable  John 
Mulcahy,  Reg.  No.  0126,  to  furnish  him  with  particulars 
as  to  the  number  of  acres  cleared  for  cultivation  in  his 
district  during  the  past  twelve  months."  Mr.  Blank,  of 
another  branch,  asks  for  information  with  regard  to  bee- 
keeping. An  Hon.  Member  has  raised  a  question  in  the 
House  and  statistics  must  be  prepared  in  readiness. 

And  so  it  goes  on.  There  are  a  hundred  and  one  things 
calling  for  attention.  One  day  it  is  pen  and  ink  work, 
another  he  is  hi  the  saddle  again  to  help  in  putting  out  a 
bush  fire,  or  in  rounding  up  a  lost  horse.  Let  no  prospec- 
tive mounted  constable  think  that  it  is  going  to  be  "  all  gas 
and  gaiters  "  for  him  when  he  has  donned  the  smart-looking 
uniform  and  goes  riding  out  with  sword  and  carbine  in  the 
glory  of  full  dress.  There  are  plenty  to  envy  him,  perhaps, 
but  they  mainly  see  the  smooth  side  to  his  life. 

Yet,  with  all  its  hard  work  and  trials,  a  trooper  police- 
man's lot  has  its  attractions  and  compensations.  There  is 

—  406  — 


THE  POLICE  TROOPER  OF  TO-DAY 

an  undeniable  status  conferred  by  the  position.  In  his 
own  circle  he  is  a  very  important  personage  ;  and  if  he  makes 
many  enemies  among  a  certain  class,  he  makes  many  friends 
elsewhere.  There  is  always  a  welcome  for  him  at  a  squatter's 
station,  and  bush  hospitality  in  Australia  is  proverbial. 
Then  there  is  the  freedom  of  the  life  when  patrolling  has  to 
be  done  ;  the  long  rides  through  the  bush  with  one  or  two 
native  trackers  for  company,  and  the  opportunities  for  sport 
of  varied  kind.  In  up-country  districts  wild-fowl  are  plenti- 
ful. The  camp  meal  is  often  to  be  provided  by  the  gun. 
When  the  feeling  of  loneliness  that  is  apt  to  seize  upon  a 
man  has  worn  off,  and  he  comes  under  the  spell  of  the  bush, 
a  trooper  policeman  finds  the  harness  sitting  lightly  upon 
him.  There  is  something  in  the  country  that  catches  him, 
something  that  is  satisfying  to  his  life,  and  he  can  shrug 
his  shoulders  at  the  cares  of  office. 

"  I  look  back,"  said  one  ex-trooper,  "  to  the  years  I 
spent  in  the  bush  and  wish  I  had  them  to  live  over  again. 
There  was  plenty  of  hard  work,  real  tough  jobs  at  times,  and 
a  fair  share  of  nasty  work  ;  but  it  was  a  life  for  a  man  ! 
You  don't  take  kindly  to  the  city  after  you've  been  in  the 
wilds  for  long.  Streets  and  houses  seem  to  cramp  you.  And 
the  comradeship  you  enjoy,  the  scores  of  good  fellows  you 
meet,  the  spice  of  excitement  at  times,  the  hard  ride  by  day 
and  the  camp-fire  with  its  yarns  at  night — they're  not  easily 
forgotten,  I  tell  you.  '  Oh  !  the  hardest  day  was  never 
then  too  hard  !  '  Gordon  knew  all  about  it,  for  he  had  been 
a  trooper  himself.  I  served  a  rough  apprenticeship  in  my 
first  few  years  of  service,  and  I  had  my  bad  times  after  that, 
but  one  looks  back  upon  them  easily  in  the  end.  Get  a  dozen 
'  old  hands  '  together  and  set  them  yarning  of  the  days 
'  out  back.'  You'll  see  then  what  I  mean." 

—  407  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Touching  the  variety  of  duties  that  fall  to  a  mounted 
policeman's  lot  only  a  few  have  been  mentioned.  He  ex- 
hibits his  usefulness  to  the  State  in  so  many  ways  that  it  is 
difficult  to  enumerate  them  all.  An  important  work  he 
frequently  undertakes  is  the  care  of  indigent  blacks,  to  whom 
he  serves  out  blankets  and  other  necessaries.  Of  the  detec- 
tion of  native  criminals  enough  has  been  said  in  previous 
chapters,  but  it  is  not  always  recognized  how  great  is  the 
distance  that  a  constable  may  have  to  travel  in  the  execution 
of  his  duty.  In  one  case  that  came  under  the  writer's 
observation  a  trooper  had  the  following  experience. 

An  aboriginal  murder  had  been  committed  in  the 
Murchison  country,  W.A.  With  three  native  witnesses 
the  officer  proceeded  under  orders  to  Carnarvon,  which  he 
reached  only  to  find  that  the  offender  had  escaped.  He  was 
then  instructed  to  take  the  witnesses  back  to  the  Mt. 
Wittenoom  Station  and  remain  there  for  orders.  Eleven 
hundred  miles  had  now  been  covered.  The  next  move  was 
to  Geraldton,  210  miles  distant ;  thence  he  returned  to  Mt. 
Wittenoom,  and  thence,  again,  to  Moorarie,  this  last  a  200 
miles'  journey.  In  all  over  1,700  miles  were  covered,  and 
the  blacks  walked  all  the  way  !  The  time  occupied  was 
from  the  end  of  June  to  the  end  of  the  following  January. 
This  is  an  extraordinary  instance,  perhaps,  but  Aus- 
tralia is  a  country  of  immense  distances,  and  a  trip  of  many 
hundreds  of  miles  may  be  a  trooper's  experience  at  any  time. 
An  unpleasant  form  of  duty  is  the  bringing  in  of  lunatics 
from  outlying  parts,  though,  happily,  this  does  not  occur 
frequently.  If  it  is  in  the  hot  weather  and  the  plains 
have  to  be  crossed,  the  scarcity  of  water  adds  greatly  to  the 
hardships  of  the  journey.  The  "  hatters,"  as  the  patients 
are  commonly  known,  are  the  bane  of  the  country  police- 

—  408  — 


THE  POLICE  TROOPER  OF  TO-DAY 

man's  life  when  they  break  loose.  The  news  that  one  is 
abroad  in  the  bush  in  a  state  of  nudity  generally  means 
that  his  capture  will  only  be  effected  after  a  long,  tiresome 
chase  in  the  teeth  of  a  stifling  hot  wind. 

Of  the  lighter  side  of  his  life  the  police  trooper  is  much 
more  ready  to  speak,  and  often  his  experiences  are  quaint. 
As  registrar  of  marriages,  for  instance,  he  has  been  called 
upon  to  "  tie  the  knot  "  for  many  a  happy  couple  who  were 
out  of  reach  of  a  clergyman,  and  once  at  least  he  was  peti- 
tioned to  pronounce  a  divorce.  Trooper  Donegan  was  the 
officer  in  the  case,  that  same  Donegan  who  was  representa- 
tive of  the  law  in  the  Northern  Territory,  as  has  been  told. 
The  parties  to  the  suit  were  an  illicit  grog-seller,  whose 
shanty  had  been  destroyed  by  the  police,  and  his  wife. 

As  Mr.  Searcey  narrates  the  story,  soon  after  the  raid 
Donegan,  who  was  a  J.P.  among  other  things,  received  a 
visit  from  the  two  relative  to  divorce  proceedings.  The  Iady5 
he  learned,  desired  to  get  rid  of  her  husband,  having  a  second 
mate  in  mind,  and  was  prepared  to  pay  handsomely,  cash 
down,  for  the  deliverance. 

"  Can't  be  done,"  said  Donegan  curtly.  "  It's  out  of  my 
power." 

"  Then  if  you  won't  doit,"  she  retorted,  "  I'll  shoot  him  ! " 

And  finding  the  trooper  still  obdurate,  Mrs.  Shantyman 
was  as  good  as  her  word,  for  withdrawing  from  the  office,  she 
"  drew  a  bead  "  on  her  spouse  and  was  peppering  him  hotly 
when  the  law  interfered.  She  then  entrenched  herself  in  a 
store-room  which  had  to  be  carried  by  force  of  arms,  but  her 
arrest  was  followed  by  an  acquittal.  What  further  proceed- 
ings, legal  or  otherwise,  she  took  is  not  recorded. 

Even  an  ordinary  criminal  case  may  have  an  accidental 
light  touch  in  it.  There  was  an  interlude  in  the  arresting 

—  409  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

of  a  noted  Queensland  horse-thief  some  years  ago,  which  was 
not  strictly  in  order.  The  prisoner  was  one  Caldwell  who 
was  taken  asleep  in  his  camp  in  the  bush,  where  a  police 
officer  had  recognized  him  as  an  old  offender  badly  "  wanted  " 
on  several  charges.  Caldwell,  by  the  way,  was  a  desperate 
character  and  during  the  journey  down  to  Mackay  made  a 
fierce  attack  on  his  captor  in  the  hope  of  escaping.  The 
officer  took  the  rough  and  tumble  in  good  part.  At  the 
next  stopping-place,  on  the  Bowen  River,  the  two  entered  a 
public-house,  and  here  met  a  drover  who  bore  a  grudge 
against  Caldwell.  This  man  was  highly  pleased  to  see  his 
enemy  with  the  handcuffs  on,  and  commenced  gibing  him. 

The  horse-thief  writhed  under  the  other's  taunts.  He 
was  powerless  to  retaliate.  "  The  filthy  blackguard  !  "  he 
said  ;  "he  wouldn't  dare  stand  up  to  me  if  I  had  my  hands 
free  !  Let  me  have  a  go  at  him,  sergeant,  won't  you  ?  I'll 
act  straight,  I  swear !  " 

The  officer  hesitated — and  was  lost.  His  sympathies 
were  aroused.  The  handcuffs  were  unlocked  and  Caldwell 
turned  up  his  sleeves.  It  was  a  pretty  fight,  for  the  drover 
was  no  novice,  but  Caldwell  whipped  him  till  he  couldn't 
stand.  Then  the  victor  put  out  his  hands  for  the  ' '  bracelets ' ' 
again,  and  the  journey  was  resumed.  Probably  the  memory 
of  that  ten  minutes  helped  to  sweeten  the  ten  years'  term 
which  he  subsequently  served. 

To  sum  up,  the  police  trooper  of  Australia,  regarded  from 
all  points  of  view,  is  well  worthy  of  the  high  praise  that 
has  been  bestowed  upon  him.  As  the  "  handy  man  "  of  his 
country  he  occupies  a  unique  position.  Almost  the  only 
fault  he  has  is  that  he  is  too  willing  to  take  a  heavy  burden 
on  his  back  and  do  work  that  should  fall  to  others.  One 
critic  has  pointed  out  that  "  by  indefinitely  multiplying  the 

•• —  410  — 


THE  POLICE  TROOPER  OF  TO-DAY 

duties  of  police  officers  a  twofold  risk  is  run — that  of  render- 
ing the  work  so  complex  that  men  of  average  talent  and 
education  will  be  unable  to  perform  it  thoroughly,  and  that 
of  undermining  the  popularity  of  the  force  by  exhibiting  its 
members  before  the  eyes  of  the  people  as  universally  inter- 
fering and  censorious."  There  is  food  for  reflection  in  this. 
Every  chief  of  police  in  the  seven  States  will  subscribe  to 
the  utterance.  For  the  present,  however,  the  mounted 
policeman  cheerfully  continues  to  carry  out  his  manifold 
duties  and  in  their  performance  he  has  the  satisfactory 
knowledge  that  he  is  no  mean  factor  in  the  development  of 
the  Commonwealth. 


THE    END. 


411 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  A 

MEMORANDUM  TO  THE  ADMIRALTY  BY  LORD  SYDNEY, 
AUGUST  1786 

HEADS  or  A  PLAN  for  effectually  disposing  of  convicts,  and 
rendering  their  transportation  reciprocally  beneficial,  both  to 
themselves  and  to  the  State,  by  the  establishment  of  a  colony 
in  New  South  Wales,  a  country  which,  by  the  fertility  and  salu- 
brity of  the  climate,  connected  with  the  remoteness  of  its  situ- 
ation (from  whence  it  is  hardly  possible  for  persons  to  return 
without  permission),  seems  peculiarly  adapted  to  answer  the 
views  of  Government  with  respect  to  the  providing  a  remedy 
for  the  evils  likely  to  result  from  the  late  alarming  and  numer- 
ous increase  of  felons  in  this  country  and  more  particularly  in 
the  metropolis. 

"It  is  proposed  that  a  ship  of  war  of  a  proper  class,  with  a 
part  of  her  guns  mounted  and  a  sufficient  number  of  men  on 
board  for  her  navigation  and  a  tender  of  about  200  tons  burthen, 
commanded  by  discreet  officers,  should  be  got  ready  as  soon  as 
possible  to  serve  as  an  escort  to  the  convict  ships,  and  for  other 
purposes  hereinafter  mentioned. 

"  That  in  addition  to  their  crews,  they  should  take  on  board 
two  companies  of  marines  to  form  a  military  establishment  on 
shore  (not  only  for  the  protection  of  the  settlement,  if  requisite, 
against  the  natives,  but  for  the  preservation  of  good  order, 
together  with  an  assortment  of  stores,  utensils,  and  implements, 
necessary  for  erecting  habitations  and  for  agriculture,  and  such 
quantities  of  provisions  as  may  be  proper  for  the  use  of  the 
crews.  As  many  marines  as  possible  should  be  artificers,  such  as 
carpenters,  sawyers,  smiths,  potters  (if  possible),  and  some  hus- 

—  413  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

bandmen.     To  have  a  chaplain  on  board,  with  a  surgeon,  and  one 
mate  at  least ;    the  former  to  remain  at  the  settlement. 

"  That  these  vessels  should  touch  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
or  any  other  place  that  may  be  convenient,  for  any  seed  that 
may  be  requisite  to  be  taken  thence,  and  for  such  live  stock  as 
they  can  possibly  contain,  which,  it  is  supposed,  can  be  procured 
there  without  any  difficulty,  and  at  the  most  reasonable  rates, 
for  the  use  of  the  settlement  at  large. 

"  That  Government  should  immediately  provide  a  certain 
number  of  ships  of  a  proper  burthen  to  receive  on  board  at  least 
seven  or  eight  hundred  convicts,  and  that  one  of  them  should  be 
properly  fitted  for  the  accommodation  of  the  women. 

"  That  these  ships  should  take  on  board  as  much  provisions 
as  they  can  possibly  stow,  or  at  least  a  sufficient  quantity  for 
two  years'  consumption ;  supposing  one  year  to  be  issued  at 
whole  allowance,  and  the  other  year's  provisions  at  half  allow- 
ance, which  will  last  two  years  longer,  by  which  time  it  is  pre- 
sumed the  colony,  with  the  live  stock  and  grain  which  may  be 
raised  by  a  common  industry  on  the  part  of  the  new  settlers,  will 
be  fully  sufficient  for  their  maintenance  and  support. 

"  That,  in  addition  to  the  crews  of  the  ships  appointed  to 
contain  the  convicts,  a  company  of  marines  should  be  divided 
between  them,  to  be  employed  as  guards  for  preventing  ill  conse- 
quences that  might  arise  from  dissatisfaction  amongst  the  con- 
victs, and  for  the  protection  of  the  crew  in  the  navigation  ot 
the  ship  from  insults  that  might  be  offered  by  the  convicts. 

"  That  each  ship  should  have  on  board  at  least  two  surgeons' 
mates  to  attend  to  the  wants  of  the  sick,  and  should  be  supplied 
with  a  proper  assortment  of  medicines  and  instruments,  and  that 
two  of  them  should  remain  with  the  settlement. 

"  After  the  arrival  of  the  ships  which  are  intended  to  convey 
the  convicts  the  ship  of  war  and  tender  may  be  employed  in 
obtaining  live  stock  from  the  Cape,  or  from  the  Molucca  Islands, 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  which  may  be  brought  from  either  of  those 
places  to  the  new  settlement,  in  two  or  three  trips  ;  or  the  tender, 
if  it  should  be  thought  most  advisable,  may  be  employed  in  con- 
veying to' the  new  settlement  a  further  number  of  women  from 
the  Friendly  Islands,  New  Caledonia,  etc.,  which  are  contiguous 
thereto,  and  from  whence  any  number  may  be  procured  without 
difficulty. 

"  The  whole  regulation  and  management  of  the  settlement 
—  414  — 


should  be  committed  to  the  care  of  a  discreet  officer,  and  pro- 
vision should  be  made  in  all  cases,  both  civil  and  military,  by 
special  instructions  under  the  Great  Seal  or  otherwise,  as  may 
be  thought  proper. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  it  may  be  observed  with  great  force  and 
truth  that  the  difference  of  expense  (whatever  method  of  carry- 
ing the  convicts  thither  may  be  adopted),  and  this  mode  of  dis- 
posing of  them  and  that  of  the  usual  ineffectual  one  is  too  trivial 
to  be  a  consideration  with  Government,  at  least  in  comparison 
with  the  great  object  to  be  obtained  by  it,  especially  now  the  evil 
is  increased  to  such  an  alarming  degree,  from  the  inadequacy  of 
all  other  expedients  that  have  hitherto  been  tried  or  suggested. 

"  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  remark  in  favour  of  this  plan  that 
considerable  advantage  will  arise  from  the  cultivation  of  the  Nevr 
Zealand  hemp  or  flax-plant  in  the  new  intended  settlement,  the 
supply  of  which  would  be  of  great  consequence  to  us  as  a  naval 
power,  as  our  manufacturers  are  of  opinion  that  canvas  made  of 
it  would  be  superior  in  strength  and  beauty  to  any  canvas  made 
of  the  European  material,  and  that  a  cable  of  the  circumference 
of  ten  inches  made  from  the  former  would  be  superior  in  strength 
to  one  of  eighteen  inches  made  of  the  latter.  The  threads  or 
filaments  of  this  New  Zealand  plant  are  formed  by  Nature  with 
the  most  exquisite  delicacy,  and  may  be  so  minutely  divided  as 
to  be  manufactured  into  the  finest  linens. 

"  Most  of  the  Asiatic  productions  may  also,  without  doubt, 
be  cultivated  in  the  new  settlement,  and  in  a  few  years  may 
render  our  recourse  to  our  European  neighbours  for  those  pro- 
ductions unnecessary. 

"  It  may  also  be  proper  to  attend  to  the  possibility  of  procuring 
from  New  Zealand  any  quantity  of  masts  and  ship  timber  for  the 
use  of  our  fleets  in  India,  as  the  distance  between  the  two  countries 
is  not  greater  than  between  Great  Britain  and  America.  It  grows 
close  to  the  water's  edge,  is  of  size  and  quality  superior  to  any 
hitherto  known,  and  may  be  obtained  without  difficulty." 


—  415 


THE  TROOPER   POLICE 


APPENDIX  B 

TEXT  OF  TREATY  MADE '^BETWEEN  JOHN  BATMAN 
AND  THE  ABORIGINAL  CHIEFS  OF  PORT  PHILLIP 
DISTRICT,  1835 

"  KNOW  all  persons  that  we,  three  brothers,  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga, 
Jagajaga,  being  the  three  principal  chiefs,  and  also  Cooloolock, 
Bungarie,  Yanyan,  Moowhip,  Monmarmalar,  being  the  chiefs  of 
a  certain  native  tribe  called  Dutigallar,  situate  at  and  near  Port 
Phillip,  called  by  us,  the  above-mentioned  chiefs,  Irausnoo  and 
Geelong,  being  possessed  of  the  tract  of  land  hereinafter  men- 
tioned, for  and  in  consideration  of  twenty  pair  of  blankets,  thirty 
knives,  twelve  tomahawks,  ten  looking-glasses,  twelve  pair  of 
scissors,  fifty  handkerchiefs,  twelve  red  shirts,  four  flannel  Jackets, 
four  suits  of  clothes,  and  50  Ibs.  of  flour,  delivered  to  us  by  John 
Batman,  residing  in  Van  Diemen's  Land,  Esquire,  but  at  present 
sojourning  with  us  and  our  tribe,  do,  for  ourselves,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  give,  grant,  enfeoff,  and  confirm  unto  the  said  John 
Batman,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  all  that  tract  of  country  situate  and 
being  in  the  bay  of  Port  Phillip,  known  by  the  name  of  Indented 
Head,  but  called  by  us  Geelong,  extending  across  from  Geelong 
Harbour  about  due  south  for  10  miles,  more  or  less,  to  the  head 
of  Port  Phillip,  taking  in  the  whole  neck  or  tract  of  land  contain- 
ing about  100,000  acres,  as  the  same  hath  been  before  the  execu- 
tion of  these  presents  delineated  and  marked  out  by  us,  according 
to  the  custom  of  our  tribe,  by  certain  marks  made  upon  the  trees 
growing  along  the  boundaries  of  the  said  tract  of  land,  with  all 
advantages  belonging  thereto,  unto  and  to  the  use  of  the  said 
John  Batman,  his  heirs,  said  tract  of  land,  and  place  thereon, 
sheep  and  cattle,  yielding  and  delivering  to  us  and  assigns,  to 
the  meaning  and  intent  that  the  said  John  Batman  his  heirs  and 
assigns,  may  occupy  and  possess  the  same,  and  our  heirs  and 
successors  the  yearly  rent  or  tribute  of  fifty  pair  of  blankets, 
fifty  knives,  fifty  tomahawks,  fifty  pair  of  scissors,  fifty  looking- 
glasses,  twenty  suits  of  slops  or  clothing,  and  two  tons  of  flour. 
In  witness  thereof,  we  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga,  the  three 
principal  chiefs,  and  also  Cooloolock,  Bungarie,  Yanyan,  Moowhip, 
and  Monmarmalar,  the  chiefs  of  the  said  tribe,  have  hereunto 
affixed  our  seals  to  these  presents,  and  have  signed  the  same. 

—  416  — 


APPENDIX   B 

Dated,  according  to  the  Christian  era,  this  6th  day  of  June,  1835. 
— Signed,  sealed  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of  us,  the  same 
having  been  fully  and  properly  interpreted  and  explained  to  the 
said  chiefs. 

"  (Signed)  JAGAJAGA,  his  X  mark. 
JAGAJAGA,  his  x  mark. 
JAGAJAGA,  his  x  mark. 
COOLOOLOCK,  his  X  mark. 
BUNGARIE,  his  X  mark. 
YANYAN,  his  x  mark. 

MONMARMALAR,    his     X    mark. 

JAMES  GUMM. 
WM.  TODD. 
JOHN  BATMAN." 

"Be  it  remembered  that  on  the  day  and  year  within  written, 
possession  and  delivery  of  the  tract  of  land  within  mentioned 
was  made  by  the  within-named  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga, 
Cooloolock,  Bungarie,  Yanyan,  Moowhip,  Monmarmalar,  chiefs 
of  the  tribes  of  natives  called  Dutigallar-Geelong,  to  the  within- 
named  John  Batman,  by  the  said  chiefs,  taking  up  part  of  the 
soil,  and  delivering  the  same  to  the  said  John  Batman,  in  the 
name  of  the  whole. 

"  (Signed) 


JAGAJAGA, 

BTJNGABIE, 

JAGAJAGA, 

YANYAN, 

JAGAJAGA, 

MOOWHIP, 

COOLOOLOCK, 

MONMARMALAR. 

In  presence  of 

JAMES  GUMM. 

(Signed) 

ALEXANDER  THOMSON. 

WM.  TODD." 

A  second  deed  recorded  the  transfer  of  the  other  and  larger 
area  of  land,  as  follows  : — 

"  Know  all  persons  that  we,  three  brothers,  Jagajaga,  Jagajaga, 
Jagajaga,  being  the  principal  chiefs,  and  also  Cooloolock,  Bun- 
garie, Yanyan,  Moowhip,  and  Monmarmalar,  also  being  the 
chiefs  of  a  certain  native  tribe  called  Dutigallar,  situate  at  and 
near  Port  Phillip,  called  by  us,  the  above-mentioned  chiefs, 
Tramoo,  being  possessed  of  the  tract  of  land  hereinafter  mentioned 
for,  and  in  consideration  of  twenty  pair  blankets,  thirty  toma- 
hawks, one  hundred  knives,  fifty  pair  of  scissors,  thirty  looking- 
glasses,  two  hundred  handkerchiefs,  and  one  hundred  pounds  of 
flour,  and  six  shirts,  delivered  to  us  by  John  Batman,  residing 

—  417  —  EE 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE! 

in  Van  Diemen's  Land,  Esquire,  but  at  present  sojourning  with  us 
and  our  tribe,  do,  for  ourselves,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  give, 
grant,  enfeoff,  and  confirm  unto  the  said  John  Batman,  his  heirs 
and  assigns,  all  that  tract  of  country  situate  and  being  in  Port 
Phillip,  running  from  the  branch  of  the  river  at  the  top  of  the 
port,  about  7  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  40  miles  north- 
east, and  from  thence  west  40  miles  across  Tramoo  downs  or 
plains,  and  from  thence  south-south-west  across  Mount  Vilumarn- 
atar  to  Geelong  Harbour,  at  the  head  of  the  same,  and  containing 
about  500,000,  more  or  less,  acres. 

(Signed,  as  above.)" 


APPENDIX   C 

THE  BUSHRANGERS  ACT  OF  1830 
(II  GEORGE  IV,  No.  10.) 

1.  Whereas  crimes  of  robbery  and  housebreaking  have  in- 
creased to  an  alarming  degree,  and  it  is  becoming  necessary  to 
restrain  the  same,  as  much  as  possible  by  temporary  provisions, 
suited  to  the  emergency  of  the  occason.  Be  it  therefore  enacted 
that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  person  whatsoever,  having  reason- 
able cause  to  suspect  and  believe  any  other  person  to  be  a  trans- 
ported felon,  unlawfully  at  large,  immediately  himself  or  with  the 
assistance  of  other  persons,  and  without  a  warrant  for  such  pur- 
pose, to  apprehend,  or  cause  to  be  apprehended,  every  such  sus- 
pected person,  and  to  take  him,  or  cause  to  be  taken,  before  any 
Justice  of  the  Peace  for  the  colony  for  examination  as  hereinafter 
provided. 

2.  Every  suspected  person  taken  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace 
shall  be  obliged  to  prove,  to  the  reasonable  satisfaction  of  such 
justice  that  he  is  not  a  felon  under  sentence  of  transportation,  and 
in  default  of  such  proof  such  justices  may  cause  such  person  to 
be  detained  in  safe  custody  until  he  can  be  proved  whether  he  is  a 
transported  felon  or  free ;  and  in  every  such  case  the  proof  of  being 
free  shall  be  upon  the  person  alleging  himself  to  be  free.  Provided 
always  that  every  Justice  of  the  Peace  may,  at  his  discretion, 

—  418  — 


APPENDIX  C 

cause  every  such  suspected  person  to  be  securely  removed  to 
Sydney  to  be  there  examined,  and  dealt  with  in  like  manner  as 
aforesaid. 

3.  And  be  it  therefore  enacted  that  every  person  whatsoever 
who  shall  be  found  on  the  roads  or  in  other  parts  of  the  colony, 
with  firearms  or  other  instruments  of  a  violent  nature  in  his 
possession,  under  the  circumstances  affording  reasonable  ground 
for  suspecting  that  such  person  may  be  or  intend  to  be  a  robber, 
every  such  suspected  person  shall  be  liable  to  be  apprehended, 
and  taken  before  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  like  manner  and  be 
dealt  with  in  all  respects  as  hereinbefore  provided  ;  and  in  every 
such  case  the  proof  that  such  firearms  or  other  instruments  of  a 
violent  nature  were  not  intended  for  an  illegal  purpose  shall  be 
upon  the  person  in  whose  possession  the  same  shall  be  found. 

4.  And  be  it  therefore  enacted  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any 
person  on  having  reasonable  cause  for  suspicion  and  believing 
that  any  other  person  may  have  any  firearms  or  other  instrument 
of  a  deadly  nature  concealed  about  his  person  to  search  or  cause 
to  be  searched  every  such  suspicious  person  ;   and  in  case  of  dis- 
covering any  such  firearms  or  instruments  of  a  deadly  nature 
apprehend  or  cause  to  be  apprehended  any  such  person  and  take 
before  any  Justice  of  the  Peace  to  be  dealt  with.  .  .  . 

5.  And  be  it  further  enacted  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any 
Justice  of  the  Peace  having  credible  information  that  any  robbers 
or  housebreakers  are  harboured  in  the  country  or  district  to  grant 
a  general  search  warrant  to  any  one  or  more  constables  to  search 
any  dwelling  house  or  tenement  or  other  place  within  or  reputed 
to  be  within  such  county  or  district ;    and  it  shall  be  lawful  for 
such  constable  in  virtue  of  such  general  warrant  to  break,  enter 
and  search,  by  day  or  by  night,  any  dwelling  place,  tenement  or 
other  place,  and  to  apprehend  every  person  whom  such  constable 
shall  have  reasonable  cause  for  suspecting  and  believing  to  be  a 
robber  or  housebreaker,  and  to  seize  and  secure  all  firearms  or 
other  arms  or  instruments  of  a  violent  nature,  and  all  goods  and 
chattels  which  such  constable  shall  have  reasonable  grounds  for 
suspecting  or  believing  to  be  stolen,  and  also  to  apprehend  all 
persons  found  in  or  about  any  such  dwelling  house,  etc.,  and  all 
whom  such  constable  shall  have  reasonable  grounds  for  suspecting 
or  believing  to  harbour  or  conceal  any  such  robber  or  house- 
breaker ;    and  all  persons,  arms,  chattels  and  goods  so  found, 
seized  and  apprehended  shall  by  such  constable  be  taken  before  a 

—  419  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Justice  of  the  Peace  for  examination,  and  to  be  further  dealt 
with  according  to  law. 

6.  And  whereas  it  is  expected  that  robbers  and  house-breakers 
shall  be  tried  and  punished  as  speedily  as  may  be  consistent  with 
the  ends  of  Justice,  be  it  therefore  enacted  that  all  persons  who 
shall  be  fully  committed  for  the  crime  of  robbing  or  of  entering, 
and  plundering  any  dwelling  house,  with  arms  and  violence, 
shall  be  brought  to  trial  as  speedily  as  possible,  and  being  law- 
fully convicted  and  sentenced  to  suffer  death,  shall  be  executed 
according  to  law  on  the  day  next  but  two  after  sentence  has  been 
passed  ;  unless  the  same  shall  happen  to  be  Sunday,  and  in  that 
case,  on  the  Monday  following ;    such  sentence  shall  be  passed 
immediately  after  the  conviction  of  such  offender,  unless  the 
Court  or  Jury  shall  see  reasonable  cause  for  postponing  the  same. 

7.  And  be  it  further  enacted  that  every  person  who  shall 
be  found  with  firearms  or  other  instruments  of  a  violent  nature 
in  his  possession,  and  shall  not  prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  such 
Justice  of  the  Peace  that  the  same  were  or  were  not  intended  to 
be  illegally  used,  shall  be  guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanour,  and 
being  lawfully  convicted  thereof,  shall  be  liable  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Court  to  be  imprisoned  for  any  term  not  exceeding  three 
years. 


APPENDIX  D 

LIST   OF  POLICE   KILLED    OR  WOUNDED  BY  BUSH- 
RANGERS FROM  1861  TO  1879 

SERGEANT  MIDDLETON  and  Trooper  Hosie,  wounded  in  attempt 
to  capture  Frank  Gardiner,  July  1861. 

Detective  Patrick  Lyons,  received  gunshot  wound  in  right 
hand  while  escorting  prisoners  between  Forbes  and  'Young  ;  was 
attacked  by  Davis  and  party ;  Davis  was  arrested,  April  14, 
1862. 

Senior-Constable  Henry  Moran,  shot  in  the  groin  by  Gardiner's 
gang,  Eugowra  Creek,  when  escorting  gold,  June  15,  1862. 

Constable  Luke  Cullen,  while  struggling  with  a  prisoner  pistol 
exploded,  and  was  shot  in  leg,  August  10,  1862. 

—  420  — 


APPENDIX  D 

Constable  Thomas  Rayfield,  wounded  with  pistol  ball  in 
side  while  attempting  to  arrest  a  horse  dealer  named  Little 
Jemmy,  November  10,  1862. 

Senior-Constable  William  Hughes,  fired  upon  from  ambush, 
received  gunshot  wound  in  arm,  June  8,  1863. 

Senior-Constable  Frederick  Sutton,  wounded  by  Gilbert 
when  attempting  to  rob  Carcoar  mail,  August  6,  1863. 

Senior-Sergeant  James  Stephenson,  received  gunshot  wound 
in  the  hand  in  an  encounter  with  bushranger  Lowry,  when  latter 
was  wounded  and  died  following  day,  August  29,  1863. 

Senior-Constable  Thomas  Haughey,  received  gunshot  wound 
in  the  knee  in  an  encounter  with  armed  offenders  at  Toodles' 
shanty,  Demondrille  Creek,  September  4,  1863. 

Sergeant  David  M'Ginnerty,  shot  dead  by  Morgan  near 
Tumberumba,  June  24,  1864. 

Sergeant  Thomas  Smyth,  shot  while  camping  in  his  tent  at 
night  by  Morgan,  September  4,  1864  ;  died  September  29,  1864. 

Sergeant  Edward  Parry,  shot  dead  by  Gilbert,  November  15, 
1864. 

Constable  Samuel  Nelson,  shot  by  Dunn  at  Collector,  January 
26,  1865. 

Senior-Constable  John  Ward,  died  from  a  gunshot  wound 
inflicted  by  a  Chinaman  between  Mudgee  and  Coonabarabran, 
February  4,  1865. 

Constable  William  Wiles,  received  three  gunshot  wounds,  two 
in  hand  and  one  in  leg,  in  an  encounter  with  Hall's  gang  at 
Byrnes',  Mutbilly,  February  24,  1865. 

Constable  John  Kelly,  received  bullet  in  the  left  breast  in  an 
attack  by  Hall  and  gang  on  Araluen  gold-field,  March  18,  1865. 

Constable  Robert  Keane,  received  gunshot  wound  in  right 
shoulder  in  an  encounter  with  bushrangers  at  Cunningar,  March 
18,  1865. 

Constable  Michael  King,  received  gunshot  in  ankle  in  an 
encounter  with  armed  offenders  at  Binalong,  1865. 

Senior-Constable  J.  R.  Herbert,  accidentally  shot  (afterwards 
died)  in  mistake  for  bushranger,  April  13,  1865. 

Senior-Constable  Willam  Lang,  wounded  by  pistol  ball 
in  the  arm  when  attempting  to  arrest  mail-robber,  Carroll, 
December  10,  1865. 

Constable  James  McHale,  wounded  when  effecting  the  capture 
of  the  outlaw  Dunn,  December  24,  1865. 

—  421  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 

Constable  Miles  O'Grady,  wounded  when  attempting  to 
arrest  armed  robbers,  April  9,  1866. 

Constable  William  Raymond  shot  by  prisoner  on  escort,  April 
14,  1866. 

Constable  McCable,  shot  by  offender  Pearson  at  "  Shearer's 
Inn,"  Bourke  district,  November  1,  1868. 

Sergeant  Andrew  Sutherland,  shot  by  offender  Grey,  near 
Cowra,  May  1,  1872. 

Constable  Michael   Costigan|Shot  at  Bourke,  September  11, 

Constable  G.  R.  Armytage    }     1877. 

Senior  Sergeant  Thomas  Wallings  shot  dead  at  Wonbobbie, 
Macquarie  River,  by  offender  Gibson,  September  20,  1878. 

Sergeant  Michael  Kennedy]  Shot   dead   by    Kelly   gang   at 
Constable  Scanlan  I     Wombat  Ranges,  near  Mans- 

Constable  Lonergan  j      field,  Victoria,  October  26, 1878. 

Constable    Power    wounded     in    an    encounter     with     four 
bushrangers  near  Balranald,  1879. 


APPENDIX  E 
HOW  TO  JOIN  THE  MOUNTED  POLICE 

THE  age  limits  and  standards  of  height,  weight  and  measure- 
ment, vary  slightly  in  the  different  States.  In  most  cases  parti- 
culars of  these  have  been  given  in  the  chapters  dealing  with  the 
constitution  of  each  force.  As  representative  of  the  general 
qualifications  for  entry  the  application  form  sent  to  would-be 
candidates  for  the  New  South  Wales  police  force  is  appended  : 

N.S.W.  POLICE 

ENROLMENT. 
QUALIFICATION  OF  CANDIDATES. 

1.  Age  under  thirty  years. 

2.  Candidates  must  undergo  a  medical  examination.     The  standards 

for  height,  weight,  and  chest  measurement  are  approximately 
as  follows  : — 

—  422  — 


APPENDIX   E 


Height. 

Weight. 

Chest  Measurement. 

5  feet     8  inches 
5     „       9       ,  

11  stone 
11     „         4  Ib. 

38  inches 
39      „ 

5     „     10      „           ... 
5     „     11       „           ... 
6     „         

11     »       10    „ 
12     „         0    „ 
12     „         6    „ 

39J    „ 
40      „ 

40*    , 

3.  They  must  read,  write,  and  cipher  well,  and  be  in  other  respects 

fairly  educated. 

4.  They  must  produce  satisfactory  testimonials  of  character. 

5.  During  the  period  of  probation  at  the  Depot,  and  before  being 

sworn  in,  they  can  leave  at  any  time  by  giving  notice  to  the 
Officer-in-Charge. 

6.  After  the  period  of  probation,  they  are,  if  considered  suitable, 

required  to  take  and  subscribe,  in  the  presence  of  a  Magistrate, 
the  oath  required  by  the  Police  Regulation  Act. 

QUESTIONS  TO  BE  ANSWERED  BY  CANDIDATES  FOB  POLICE 
APPOINTMENT. 

1.  Have  you  been  in  any  Police  or  Public  Service — if  so,  state  where, 

and  for  what  time  ? 

2.  When  discharged,  and  why  ? 

3.  Trade  or  calling  ? 

4.  By  whom  last  employed,  where,  and  in  what  capacity  ? 

5.  By  whom  recommended,  or  what  testimonials  produced  ? 

6.  If  candidate  for  Mounted  or  Foot  Police  ? 

7.  If  Applicant  can  swim  ? 

8.  If  drilled  ? 

9.  Can  Applicant  ride  a  bicycle  ?    

PERSONAL  DESCRIPTION. 


Age. 

State  Year 
of  Birth 
and  Date 

Height. 

Weight. 

Chest 
Measure- 
ment. 

Married 
or 
Single. 

Where 
Born. 

General 
Health. 

as  well. 

(Signature)    

(Postal  Address) 


(Date) . 


—  423  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


APPENDIX  F 

LIST  OF  POLICE  COMMANDANTS  AND  COMMIS- 
SIONERS. 

NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 
Mounted  Patrols — 

Headquarters   Division   Commandant,  Captain  John  M'Lerie. 
Southern :  Superintendent,  Captain  Zouch. 
Western :  ,,  Captain  Battye. 

Northern :  „  Captain  Scott. 

Inspector-Generals — 

Captain  John  M'Lerie 1862-1874 

Mr.  Edmund  Fosbery,  C.M.G.     .     *,.     .      .  1874-1903 

Mr.  Thomas  Garvin,  I.S.O.     .      .  < •  i  •   ;    'v  ^  .  1903-1910 

Mr.  Ernest  C.  Day v     J'   *     .  1911 

VICTORIA. 
Military  Commandant,  Captain  Lonsdale 1836 

High  Constables — 

Robert  Day 1836 

Henry  Batman     . . .  V-j----.;:*  ,r«     •     •     •     •   .  .     .  1837 

William  Wright   I  : .     i     .' 1838 

F.  A.  Falkiner      .      .      .     .     .    V    .     .     .     .     .  1841 

Joseph  Bloomfield 1848 

Chief  Commissioners — 

Captain  Mair 1853 

Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  William  H.  F.  Mitchell  .      .     .  1854 

Captain  (afterwards  Sir)  Charles 'Macmahon  .      .     .  1854 

Captain  Frederick  C.  Standish  ...'....  1858 
(Acting  Chief  Commissioner,  Superintendent  C.  H. 

Nicolson) 1880 

Mr.  Hussey  Malone  Chomley 1882 

Mr.  Thomas  O'Callaghan      .     .....     .     .  1902 

—  424  — 


APPENDIX    F 

SOUTH  AUSTRALIA. 

Superintendent —    . 

Mr.  Henry  Inman 1838 

Commissioners — 

Major  Thomas  S.  O'Halloran 1840 

Mr.  Boyle  T.  Finniss 1843 

Mr.  G.  F.  Dashwood 1849 

Mr.  Alexander  Tolmer 1852 

(Acting  Commissioner,  Senior  Inspector  C.  W.  Stuart)  1853 

Major  Peter  Egerton  Warburton 1853 

Mr.  George  Hamilton ,  1867 

Mr.  Peterswald 1882 

Colonel  L.  G.  Madley 1896 

Mr.  W.  H.  Raymond 1910 

WESTERN  AUSTRALIA. 

Superintendents — 

Mr.  J.  A.  Conroy 1852 

Sir  A.  T.  C.  CampbeU (about)  1856 

Mr.  W.  Hogan 1861 

(Acting  Superintendent,  Major  R.  H.  Crampton).      .1866-7 

Mr.  G.  E.  C.  Hare 1867 

Commissioners — 

Captain  M.  S.  Smith 1871 

Lieut.-Col.  G.  B.  Phillips 1887 

Captain  Fred.  A.  Hare 1900 


QUEENSLAND. 

Moreton  Bay  Military  Commandants — 

Captain  Millar .     .  1824 

Captain  Bishop 1824 

Captain  Logan  (57th  Regt.) 1825 

Captain  Clunie  (17th  Regt.) 1830 

Captain  Fyans  (4th  Regt.) 1835 

Major  Cotton  (28th  Regt.) 1837 

Lieut.  Gravett 1839 

Lieut.  Gorman 1839-1842 

—  425  — 


Acting  Police  Magistrates  and  Commandants — 

Dr.  Simpson 1842 

Captain  J.  C.  Wickham — 

Commandants,  Native  Mounted  Police — 

Mr.  Frederick  Walker 1848 

Mr.  G.  Murray (about)  1860 

Commissioners — 

Mr.  D.  T.  Seymour 1864 

Mr.  W.  E.  Parry-Okeden,  I.S.0 1895 

Major  W.  G.  Cahill,  V.D 1905 


Butler  &  Tanner,  The  Selwood  Printing  Works,  Frome,  and  London. 
426    


INDEX 


Aborigines,  281,  285  seq.  •  origin, 
285  :  characteristics,  286  ;  wea- 
pons, 289  ;  customs  and  super- 
stitions, 293  ;  treatment,  297  ; 
Tasmanian  blacks,  299  ;  Queens- 
land, 303,  370;  New  South 
Wales,  304 ;  Victoria,  306  ; 
South  Australia,  307  ;  Western 
Australia,  307. 

Aborigines  Protection  Board,  304. 

Afghan  camel-drivers,  338. 

Alford,   Sergeant- Major,   253. 

Allcock,    Sub-Inspector,    244. 

Alluvial  gold  riots,  337. 

"  Angel  "  case,  209. 

Armed  Association,    "    "The,    11. 

Art,  native,  291. 

Arthur,  Lieut. -Governor,  in  Van 
Diemen's  Land,  23,  59,  62,  300. 

Arunta  tribe,  286. 

"  Bail  up,"  origin  of,  128. 

Ballarat  goldfield,  80  ;  tax-collect- 
ing at,  82  ;  licence  troubles,  97. 

Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  2. 

Bathurst,  15,  20,  24,  36  ;  convict 
rising  at,  67  ;  raid  upon,  159. 

Batman,  John,  26  ;  at  Port  Phillip, 
27  ;  captures  Brady,  60. 

Battye,  Captain,  40,  42,  141. 

Bench  Constables,  205. 

Bendigo  goldfield,  80,  97. 

Bigge,  Commissioner,   14,   17. 

Black  trackers,  20,  197,  237,  275, 
322,  325,  359,  386  seq. 

Black-faced  robbers,"   "  The,  253. 

Blaxland,  Gregory,  explorer,  15. 

Bligh,  Captain,   11. 

Border   Police   Act,   36,   301. 

Borroloola,  270. 

Botany  Bay,  2,  6. 


Bourke,  Sir  Richard,  Governor,  22, 

35. 

Bow,  John,  bushranger,   144. 
Brady,   Matthew,   bushranger,    57. 
Brahe,  William,   110. 
Brand  faking,  351. 
Brennan,    Superintendent    Martin, 

85,  214. 
Brennan,   Inspector    Patrick,    146, 

386. 

Bridges,  Benjamin,  horse-thief,  358. 
Brisbane  founded,  366. 
Brisbane,  Sir  Thomas,Governor,  18. 
Broome,  343. 
Brown,  Lieut.,  Queensland  N.M.P., 

150. 

Brumby  hunters,  269. 
Burke,  bushranger,  159,   163. 
Burke,  Robert  O'Hara,   108. 
Burke  and  Gibbs  murder  case,  320. 
Burns,  Inspector,  210. 
Burns,  Trooper,   156. 
Burrell,  Jack,  "  cattle  duffer,"  355. 
Bush,  varieties  of,  51. 
"  Bush  telegraphs,"    148 
Bushrangers  Act,  The,  22,  68. 
Bushranging,  21,   50,    127  aeq. 
Byrne,  Joe,  190,  198,  202. 

Cahill,  Major  W.  G.,  Commissioner, 
382. 

Camels,  Use  of,  110,  264,  316. 

Campbell,  Sir  A.  T.  C.,  Superin- 
tendent, 313. 

Canowindra  "  stuck  up,"   152. 

"  Captain,"  native  criminal,  318. 

Carroll,  Trooper,   183. 

Cash,  Martin,  bushranger,  63. 

Cattle  "  duffers,"  253,  350  seq. 

Chalker,  Trooper,  388. 

Chinese  bushranger,   A,    173. 


—  427  — 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


Chomley,  Mr.  Hussey  Malone,  Chief 
Commissioner,  242. 

Clarke,  J.  S.,  Inspector,  217. 

Clarke,    Thomas    and    John,    172. 

"  Cock-eyed  bobs,"  344. 

"  Cockatoo  bird,"  71. 

Conroy,  J.  A.,  Superintendent,  312. 

Consolidating  Police  Act,  S.A.,  257. 

Convict  statistics,  310. 

Convicts  assigned  as  servants,   10. 

Convictism,  advocation  of,  2,  310, 
367  ;  abolition  of,  39,  369. 

Cook,  Captain,   1. 

Coolgardie  gold  escort  robbery,  340 

Coolgardie  goldfield,  331. 

Cooper's  Creek,   111,   115. 

Corrobborees,  293. 

Cowper,  Sir  Charles,  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, 49,  160,  206. 

Crampton,  Major  R.  H.,  Acting 
Superintendent,  313. 

Cummerford,  bushranger,  38. 

Cunningham,    Allan,   explorer,    24. 

Darling,  Sir  Ralph,  Governor,   19. 

Dashwood,  Mr.  G.  F.,  Commis- 
sioner, 255. 

Davey,  Governor,  Van  Diemen's 
Land,  299. 

Davidson,     Sub-Inspector,     167. 

Day,  Mr.  E.  C.,  Inspector-General, 
210. 

Day,  bushranger,  42. 

Dempsey,  Trooper,  274. 

Donegan,  Trooper,  269,  409. 

Donohue,  bushranger,  34. 

Drill,  404. 

Drewry,    O.,    Sub-Inspector,    321. 

Dunn,  John,  bushranger,  134,  165, 
168. 

Dunn's  Plains,   163. 

Duties,  Extraneous,  221,  263,  314, 
382,  410. 

Egan,  Tom,  murder  case,  258. 

Elder,  Sir  Thomas,  265. 

Emancipists,   13. 

"Enrolled  Force,"  312. 

Esmond,  James,  79. 

Ethel  piracy  case,  346. 

Eugowra  Rocks,   139. 

Eureka  Stockade,   100. 

Euroa,  raid  on,  191. 

Evans,  George,  Deputy  Surveyor- 
General,  15. 

Exploration,  14,  23,  108,  267,  315, 
367. 


Exploration  Expedition,  Victorian, 

110. 
Eyre,  Edward,   108,  286. 

Farm-constables,  70. 

Fawkner,  John  Pascoe,  27. 

Felons'   Apprehension   Act,    167. 

Finniss,  the  Hon.  B.  T.,  255,  268. 

First  Fleet,"  "  The,  5. 

Fitzgerald,  R.N.,  Captain,  311. 

Fitzpatrick,  Constable,   185. 

Fitzroy,  Sir  Charles,  Governor- 
General,  77. 

Fletcher,  Trooper,  348. 

Foelsche,  Paul,  Inspector,  280. 

Foley,  Jack,  251. 

Fordyce,  Alexander,   144. 

Forrest,  Alexander,  315. 

Forrest,  Sir  John,  335,  338. 

Fosbery,  C.M.G.,  The  Hon.  E.,  207, 
216. 

Franklin,  Sir  John,  64. 

Freeman,  A.,  Trooper,  359. 

Fremantle,  Captain,  30. 

Gardiner,  Francis,  85,  130  seq. 

Garvin,  I.S.O.,  Mr.  Thomas,  In- 
spector-General, 215. 

Gawler,  Colonel,  248. 

Ghost,  The  Campbell  Town,  20. 

Gilbert,  John,  134,  152,  156,  159, 
168. 

Gipps,  Sir  George,  Governor,  36, 
301. 

Glenrowan,  Kellys  at,  200. 

"  Gnamma  holes,"  317. 

Goimbla  Station,   165. 

Gold  discoveries,  New  South  Wales, 
72  ;  Victoria,  79  ;  Western  Aus- 
tralia, 313,  330;  Queensland,  375. 

Gold  escort  en  route,  136. 

Gold  escort  murder  case,  Queens- 
land, 376. 

Gold  escort  robbery,  The  great,  138. 

Gold  Police,  40,  78,  82,  93. 

Goldfield  riots,  45,  96,  336. 

Governor  (aboriginal)  gang,  215. 

Grace,  Stephen,  murder  case,  316. 

Grey,  Earl,  228,  310,  367. 

Grey,  Sir  George,  32,  248,  292. 

Griffin,  J.  T.,  Inspector,  376. 

Grose,  Major  Francis,  8. 

Hall,  Ben,  134,  152,  157 ;  at  Bath- 
urst,  159  ;  death,  167. 

Hamilton,  Mr.  George,  Commis- 
sioner, 256. 


—  428  — 


INDEX 


Hannan,  Pat,  334. 

Hare,  Captain  Fred  A.,  Commis- 
sioner, 313. 

Hare,  G.  E.  C.,  Superintendent,  313. 

Hare,  Superintendent  F.,  196,  198, 
201,  204,  237. 

Hargraves,  Edward  Hammond,  72. 

Hart,  Steve,  190,  203. 

"  Hatters,"  408. 

High  Constables  of  Port  Phillip, 
229. 

Hindmarsh,  Sir  John,  Governor, 
247. 

Hogan,  W.,  Superintendent,  313. 

Holland,  U.  W.,  Trooper,  273. 

Horse-thieves,  350,  357. 

Horsington  and  Hewitt,  Robbery 
of  Messrs.,  138. 

Hosie,  Trooper,   131. 

Hotham,  Sir  Charles,  Governor,  98. 

Houlahan,  Trooper,  391 

Howe,  Michael,  bushranger,  52 

Howitt,  Alfred  William,  122. 

Hume,  explorer,  15,  26. 

Hunter,  Captain  John,   10. 

Inman,  Superintendent,  249. 
"  Influx    of    Criminals   Prevention 
Act,"  81. 

"  Jackeroo,"  Hunting  a,  393. 

Jackey-Jackey,  bushranger,  70. 

Jasper,  Thomas,  murder  case,  324. 

Jeffries,  bushranger,  52. 

Jerilderie  "  stuck  up,"  192. 

"  Joes,"  81. 

Johnson,    Anthony,    murder    case, 

340. 
Johnstone,  Robert,  Sub-Inspector, 

125. 
Ju-jitsu,  266,  404. 

Kalgoorlie  gold  robbery,  339. 
Kalgoorlie  goldfield,  334. 
Kanaka  labour  in  Queensland,  384. 
Kavanagh,  bushranger,  64. 
Keightley,    Assistant    Gold    Com-   j 

missioner,  163. 
Kelly  gang,   184. 
Kennedy,  Mr.  E.  B.,  372,  393. 
Kennedy,    Sergeant,    187. 
Kenneth  brothers  case,  380. 
Kimberley  goldfield,  330. 
King,  Captain  Philip,  Governor,  10, 

22. 
King,  John,   110. 


Lalor,  Peter,  102. 

Lambing  Flat,  Riot  at,  45. 

Lance,  use  of,  327. 

Lang,  Dr.  J.  D.,  368. 

Latrobe,  Joseph  Charles,  Super- 
intendent of  Victoria,  74 ; 
Governor,  81,  95,  228. 

Lawrence,  W.  C.,  Superintendent, 
324. 

Lawson,  Lieut.  William,  explorer, 
15. 

Leopold  Ranges,  323. 

Licence  fee,  Goldfields,  94. 

Lomas,  Trooper,  254. 

Lonergan,  Constable,  187. 

Lonsdale,  Captain,  229. 

Lowe,  Mr.  Robert,  shoots  bush- 
ranger Heather,  157. 

Lowry,  Frederick,   163. 

Macarthur,  John,   12. 

Macmahon,  Sir  Charles,  Chief  Com- 
missioner, 232. 

Macquarie,  Major-General  Lachlan, 
Governor,  12. 

Madley,  Colonel  L.  G.,  Commis- 
sioner, 256. 

Mail-coach  robberies,  93. 

Mair,  Captain,  82,  93,  230. 

"  Major,"  native  criminal,  325. 

Manns,  bushranger,  144. 

Maria  murders,  brig,  254. 

Matra,  James  Maria,  3. 

McAuliffe,  Jerry,  story  of,  334. 

McGinnerty,  Sergeant,  169. 

McGlone,  Detective,   149. 

McGuire,  John,   143. 

McHale,  Trooper,  168. 

Mclntyre,  Trooper,   187. 

McKenna,  Inspector,  333. 

McLerie,  Captain  John,  Inspector- 
General,  40,  141,  160,  207. 

Medals  for  resisting  and  capturing 
bushrangers,  158. 

Melbourne  founded,  28. 

Melville,  Captain,  153,  181,  233. 

Mia  mia,  291. 

Middleton,  Sergeant,   131. 

Mining  Licence,  77. 

Mitchell,  Sir  William  H.  F.,  Chief 
Commissioner,  82,  231. 

Mitchell,  Thomas,  explorer,  24 

Montford,  Sergeant,  237. 

"  Moonlight  "  gang,   182. 

Moore,  Tommy,  murder  case,  212. 

Moreton  Bay  settlement,  23,  365. 

Morgan,  Dan,   169. 


—  429 


THE  TROOPER  POLICE 


Morrissett,     Superintendent,     141, 

155,   159. 

Mosquito,  bushranger,  62. 
Mount  Morgan  mine,  375. 
Mounted  Patrols,  40. 
Mounted  Police  first  formed,  19,  33. 
Murray,  Mr.  G.,  374. 
Myall  Creek  massacre,  301. 

Native  Mounted  Police,  230,  311  ; 

of  Queensland,  369. 
Nelson,  Constable,  166. 
Nelson  gold-ship  robbery,  89. 
New  South  Wales  Corps,  8,  10,  12. 
New  South  Wales  Mounted  Police, 

distribution  and  strength,  216. 
Nicholson,  Assistant-Commissioner, 

196,  204,  237,  242. 
Norfolk    Island,    8,    39 ;      convict 

rising  at,  71. 

Northern  territory,  257,  267  seq. 
Nunn,  Major,  300. 


O'Callaghan,  Mr.  Thomas,  Chief 
Commissioner,  243. 

O'Connor,  Stanhope,  Sub-Inspec- 
tor, 196. 

O'Halloran,  Major  T.  S.,  Commis- 
sioner, 249. 

O'Mealley,  Jack,  134,  144,  152, 156, 
159,  165. 

O'Neil,  Sub-Inspector,   166. 

Ord,  Sub-Inspector,  324. 

Orr,  Sub-Inspector,  265. 

Outlawry,  Proclamation  of,  167. 

Oxley,  John,  Surveyor-General,  15  ; 
discovers  Brisbane  River,  23. 

Parry,  Sergeant,   165. 

Parry-Okeden,  I.S.O.,  Mr.  W.E., 
Commissioner,  382. 

Paterson,  Captain  William,  10. 

Pay  of  Police,  225,  245,  266,  328, 
382. 

Pearl  diving,  343. 

Peechalba  Station,  Morgan  at,  171. 

Pensions  and  gratuities,  225,  245. 

Perth  founded,  30. 

Peterswald,  Mr.,  Commissioner  256, 
265. 

Pewtress,  Inspector,  189. 

Phillip,  Captain  Arthur,  Governor, 
5. 

Phillip,  Port,  27,  227 

Phillips,  Lieut. -Col.  G.  B.,  Com- 
missioner, 313. 


Picsley,  John,  bushranger,  134. 
"  Pigeon,"  native  criminal,  318. 
Piracy  case,  Pearling,  346. 
Pluto,  native  assistant,  359. 
Police   Act   of    1862,   New    South 

Wales,    49,    160,    205. 
Police  Depot,  Melbourne,  244. 
Police  Depot,  Sydney,  217. 
Police    magistrates    appointed    in 

Sydney,  35. 
Pottinger,  Sir  Frederick,  140,  152, 

387. 

Power,  Harry,  236,  351. 
Probationers,  402. 

Queensland,  settled,  365;  con- 
victism,  366 ;  separation  from 
New  South  Wales,  368,  375. 

Queensland  Mounted  Police,  dis- 
tribution and  strength,  383. 

Raymond,  Mr.  W.  H.,  Commis- 
sioner, 259. 

Richardson,  Trooper,  murder  case, 
318. 

Ross,  Major,  6. 

"  Rush,"  Bogus,  336. 

Sadleir,  Superintendent,   196,  201. 

Sam  Poo,  bushranger,  173. 

Sanderson,  Superintendent,   141. 

Scanlan,  Constable,   187. 

Scott,  Captain,  40. 

Scrub  land,  260. 

Searcey,  Mr.  Alfred,  269,  283,  299. 

Seymour,  D.  T. ,  Commissioner,  381. 

Shanty-keepers,  271. 

Sherritt,  Aaron,   198. 

Sir  Watkin  Wynne,  black  tracker, 

176,  387. 
Smith,  Cap  tain  M.  S.,  Commissioner, 

313. 

Smith,  Sergeant,  404. 
Smyth,  Sergeant,  170. 
Sorell,  Governor,  Van  Diemen's 

Land,  53. 

South  Australia  founded,  31,  247. 
South  Australian  Mounted  Police, 

distribution   and   strength,    257, 

259,  266. 

Southern  Cross  goldfield,  330. 
Special  constables  shot  by  Clarkes, 

175. 

Stafford  and  Gardiner,  Corporal,  87. 
Standish,  Captain  F.  C.,  Chief  Com- 
missioner,  196,  204,  235. 
Steele,  Sergeant,  203. 


430  — 


INDEX 


Stirling,  Captain  James,  at  Swan 
River,  W.A.,  28  ;  Lieut.-Gover- 
nor  of  Western  Australia,  30. 

Stott,  Trooper,  259. 

Strickland,  Trooper,  316. 

Strzlecki,  Count  Paul,  73. 

Stuart,  Inspector,  250,  256. 

Stuart,   McDouall,    108,    111,    267. 

Sturt,  Captain,  90,  230. 

Sturt,  Charles,  explorer,  24 ;  dis- 
covers the  Darling  River,  25 ; 
262,  291. 

Sullivan,  bushranger,  67. 

Sutton,  Trooper,  155. 

Suttor,  Mr.  William,  67. 

Swimming,  404. 

Sydney,  Lord,  4,  5. 

Sydney  Cove,  6. 

Sykes,  Superintendent,  217. 

Telegraph,  Overland,  268. 

Thompson,  Mr.  Deas,  Colonial 
Secretary,  76. 

"  Thunderbolt,"  129,  172,  177,  233. 

Thursday  Island,  385. 

Tolmer,  Mr.  Alexander,  Commis- 
sioner, 250,  255. 

Tracking,    20,    322,    359,    386   seg. 

Transportation  abolished,  New 
South  Wales,  39 ;  Queensland, 
369. 

Troy,  Sub-Inspector,  341. 

Truslove,  Sergeant,  316. 

Uniform  and  equipment,  33,  40, 
206,  225,  231,  234,  245,  251,  266, 
327,  372,  383. 

Van  Diemen's  Land  occupied,  22  ; 


bushrangers,  52  ;  convicts,  92  ; 
transportation  to  island  abol- 
ished, 93. 

Vane,  John,  152,  156,  159,  164. 

Victoria  proclaimed  a  colony,  228. 

Victorian  Mounted  Police,  distribu- 
tion and  strength,  243. 

Waddies,  290. 

Wakefield,  Edward^Gibbon,  31. 

Walker,  A.  B.,  Superintendent,  158, 
178. 

Walker,  Frederick,  Inspector,  123, 
370. 

Wantabadgery    "  stuck   up,"    182. 

Warburton,  Colonel  Peter  Egerton, 
exploration  work,  124 ;  Com- 
missioner S.A.  Police,  256. 

Ward,  Frederick  ("  Thunderbolt  "), 
129,  172,  177,  223. 

Ward,  Trooper,  173. 

Ward,  W.  J.  J.,  murder  case,  273. 

Warden  of  the  goldfields  appointed, 
106. 

"  Water  soaks,"  316. 

Waters,  Sub-Inspector,  272,  280. 

Wentworth,  William  Charles,  ex- 
plorer, 15,  35. 

Western  Australia,  settlement,  28, 
309;  convictism,  310. 

Western  Australian  Mounted  Police 
distribution  and  strength,  314. 

Wills,  W.  J.,   111. 

Wittenoom,  the  Hon.  E.,  337. 

Woomera,  throwing  stick,  289. 

Wurley,  291. 

Zouch,  Captain,  40,  41  ;  at  Lamb- 
ing Flat,  47. 


—  431  — 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  752  748     4 


@& 


